


Koree by twilight

by everystarinthesky_archive



Category: Dream Street (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-01-01
Updated: 2002-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:26:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 31,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29054361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everystarinthesky_archive/pseuds/everystarinthesky_archive
Relationships: Greg Raposo/Original Female Character(s), Matt Ballinger/Original Female Character(s)





	1. Chapter 1

**PROLOGUE**

**I remember it like yesterday.** I took a deep breath as I slowly walked to the front door of my house, the home I'd left just three months before. Who ever knew one summer could change you for a lifetime. I reached the door, and as I turned the knob, I glanced back, it was only fleetingly, but I met his eyes. I'll never forget the weak smile he offered me, and I knew he was sorry for how it all ended up. I just shook my head and bit my bottom lip as I turned around, and walked inside. I closed the door behind me, and no one could see me as I fell back against it. No one could see that single tear fall from my eye, as I smiled to myself, and _remembered_.


	2. Chapter 2

**ONE HELL OF A ROAD AHEAD**

It was my first official day of summer, and I couldn't have been happier. I had slept until 10:30, watched half of Rosie O'Donnell, eaten two pieces of french toast for breakfast, and I was ready for a relaxed summer. In two weeks my mother would be leaving for a 3 week cruise with her boyfriend and she was actually trusting me to stay in the house alone. This was going to be fun.  
  
I was just settling into the backyard hammock with my boom box, my journal and a pad and a pencil to do some writing. It might help to explain that writing has and always will be my passion. Whether it's writing articles and editorials for the school paper (I was the first ever sophmore editor past school year, thank you very much), essays for English, or short stories and poetry for my personal use, writing is what I do. When I have a pen in hand, I feel protected. Writing is perfect for any situation. Whether you want to escape from the world, or you want to jump right into the action, you can do so through writing. This particular day, I was preparing to jot down some summer goals for the summer, when I heard the phone ringing inside.  
  
I jumped up from my relaxed position on the hammock and started running to the back door to get the phone before whoever was on the other side of the line hung up. As I slid open the door I heard the answering machine had already picked up. I figured it was probably just my mom calling to check up on me from work, so I decided to let her talk to the machine as I caught my breath. I sat down on one of the kitchen stools and leaned on the counter beside the machine. When the beep sounded I was surprised to hear the woman's voice wasn't my mother's.  
  
"Hi, my name is Claire Bennet calling from Dream Street Entertainment for a Miss Koree Karlson. After going through thousands of applications, yours has been chosen to intern with-" I listened to the message being left in confusion. What application? What the hell is Dream Street Entertainment? What is this woman talking about? I decided to pick up the phone and see what this was all about.  
  
"Hello?" I said cutting off the answering machine.  
  
"Hi, this is Clair Bennet, is this Koree?" the woman asked in a professional tone of voice.  
  
"Yes, this is she..." I said trailing off.  
  
"Congratulations, dear. You've been chosen for the summer high school internship!"  
  
Still confused I asked, "Exactly what internship would this be?"  
  
Clair chuckled, "You'll be touring with the band and working for the magazine branch of our company. A Mrs. Susan Karlson, your mother I'm assuming, sent us your application and a sample of your writing. Everyone here loved it, and it was nearly a unanimous decision to choose you to join the Dream Street team. The groups' managers and producers will be stopping by your home tomorrow to discuss the finalizations with you and your family, and you'll begin touring Monday."  
  
I nearly fell from the stool as she said this to me. What in God's name was she talking about? My mother had a lot of explaining to do...  
  
****************************************  
  
I had gone back outside in a daze, and settled back into my hammock, and was trying to write in my journal, but I couldn't concentrate for the life of me. I gathered my things and went back inside, grabbed a can of coke, and plopped into my computer seat. "What the hell is a Dream Street?" I asked myself out loud, and set out to find out.  
  
****************************************  
  
An hour and two and half cokes later, I had a pretty good idea of who these Dream Street guys were. I vaguely recognized their single "It Happens Every Time," and after reading a few bios and seeing a few pictures, I realized that spending a summer with a couple of cute boys, and doing some writing definitely had some appeal to it.  
  
I heard a key jiggling at the front door and glanced at my watch. It was 12:30-- my mom's lunch break. Time for the moment of truth.  
  
"Koree, the house in a mess!" was the first thing out of her mouth as she entered the kitchen, where my breakfast dishes and pans were strewn all over the place. I just ignored her, being messy was part of my nature, and she just had to learn to deal with it.

"Oh, _mother_." I called to her from the computer room.

A moment later, she was standing in the doorway of the room. I spun around in my chair three times stopping to face her. "Claire Bennet called." I told her simply.

She seemed taken aback and was speechless for a moment.

"Sounds as though I've gotten an internship. Care to fill me in?" I asked.

She took a long deep breath and started from the beginning, "I knew you'd get it..." she smiled, "About three months ago, just after I had finalized the arrangements for my cruise, I was speaking with Mrs. Mitchell from two houses down. I was telling her about your writing, and she told me her son was working with a music group and she remembered him saying they wanted a high school intern to travel with them and write for their magazine. She looked into it for me, got an application, and I filled it out for you. I didn't say anything, because I didn't want to get your hopes up for something that may not happen." she explained. "I thought it might be a better alternative to sitting around all summer long."

A lot was going through my mind as she told me this. I honestly was looking forward to a summer of nothing, but at the same time, this was the kind of thing colleges looked for and well, the boys were definitely good looking. It was funny how two hours before all I could think about was french toast and Rosie O'Donnell, and suddenly there were new priorities floating around my head.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to." she told me when I didn't say anything in response to her.

"I..." a smile spread across my face, "I just don't know. This is so weird, mom." I bit my bottom lip. "They're sending over some people to meet us tomorrow and give us the run down." I informed her. "I guess I'll try this out."

  
****************************************

Four days had passed, and I was doing my last minute packing because the tour bus would be there to pick me up in about fifteen minutes. It didn't feel like it was really happening. On Friday, the groups producers, Brian and Lou, as well as their manager, John, stopped by my house with contracts to sign, and tons of information such as their itinerary, what I'd be responsible for writing, and a copy of the groups CD.

They were extremely nice, and assured me that everyone would treat me as a member of the "Dream Street family." Truthfully, the music wasn't my type, but I could live with it. I just couldn't believe a little old Jersey girl like me would be going to coast to coast and everywhere in between this summer, simply for the cost of my writing. 

I was sitting on my luggage trying to close it as I heard a loud "beep, beep" outside, and glanced out the window to see an enormous tour bus parked in front of my house. 

"Mom!" I called the hall of our ranch style home. "Tell them I'll be there in a second!" I said as I finally got the trunk fastened shut. I took a glance in my mirror and checked my reflection. My medium length, silky light brown hair was pulled into a high ponytail. Due to the 90 degree weather, I had on a cute multi colored tie-dye looking halter top and dark denim shorts. I almost looked cute.

I dragged my huge trunk down the hall and stopped in front of the front door where Brian was speaking with my mom. "All ready to go?" he asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be!" I smiled and kissed my mom goodbye.

  
****************************************

As we walked onto the bus, it seemed as though everyone stopped talking suddenly. There were eleven adults aside from Brian sitting towards the front (I recognized Lou and John among them) and the five members of Dream Street were hanging around the back. Brian took the silence as an opportunity to introduce me to everyone.

"Koree back there are Greg, Chris, Jesse, Matt and Frankie, better known as the members of Dream Street. Up here are Claudia their choreographer, Joe and Bess the people our sound crew, and the boys respective parents/gaurdians, Maryann, Brian, Ginger, Mike and Frank. You already know Lou and John." Everyone smiled and greeted me.

"Oh and of course, Bob, our driver." Brian added, as the bus driver tipped his hat towards me.

"We ready to hit the road?" Bob asked.

Brian nodded and told me I could take a seat somewhere and get ready for a long ride.

I wandered off to the middle of the bus and was going to sit down alone, though I wanted to go back by the boys, but was on unsure of how they'd react to me. As I was about to settle down I heard a boy's voice call out my name.

"Koree!?" I looked up to see Greg waving for me to come over to them. I walked to the back of the bus and the five boys were sitting on a circular couch typed seat. I sat in the space between Greg and Chris and smiled meekly.

"Don't be shy..." Chris laughed. "We're not going to bite."

"Unless you like that sort of thing..." Matt piped in.

I just laughed and Frankie and Matt looked at each other. "Hmm, maybe she really does!" Frankie said winking at me.

"What are you talking about?" I laughed. "I'm a good little girl." I insisted nodding my head.

"When you're done with us you won't be!!!" Jesse promised.

I shook my head just laughing.

"Hotel mini bars...now those are fun." Greg informed me.

"Breaking into the hotel pool after hours..." Frankie added.

"Sneaking out after curfew." Jesse put in.

"Stealing hair gel from the hotel store." Chris threw in.

"You loser." Matt rolled his eyes at him.

"There's one hell of a road ahead, Koree." Greg said putting his arm around me in a friendly (?) manner.

I settled against it, thinking to myself. I really _was_ a good little girl. Never drank, never did drugs, rarely lied or broke rules, never gone past kissing...but no one said I had to stay that way...


	3. Chapter 3

**COUNT THE AMISH**

As we continued driving, though I barely knew them, I felt like I had known all five of the guys for ages. They were so easy to talk to, and absolutely hilarious. They weren't nearly as clean cut as I pictured them from what I'd read about them on various fan sites, but I guess I was beginning to realize that you have to put up a front when you're in the spotlight that way.

I had to admit I was getting quite comfortable with Greg's arm around me. His grasp around me had become tighter and I was snuggled up against him. As we were all talking, I noticed Matt staring at me at a few different points, but every time I would catch his eyes and smile he'd turn away quickly. I shrugged it off.

"I'm bored." Frankie said once we had been driving for about three hours. "When are we going to be in Pittsburgh?" he called up to the front of the bus.

"At least three hours." his mom called back.

"How fun." he said slumping back into his seat. "Pennsylvania driving is so damn boring."

As we passed a sign for Lancaster, I remembered a report I had done for school on the Pennsylvania Dutch. "I know what we can do!" I exclaimed suddenly.

"What?" Jesse asked raising his eyebrows.

"We can play COUNT THE AMISH!"

Matt, Jesse, Greg and Frankie looked at me as if I was on crack, but Chris' eyes lit up. "I bet I can count more than you!" he said leaning against the window on the left side of the car.

"Not a chance." I said shaking my head and jumping up from my position with Greg to lean against the tinted window on the right side.

I saw the look of disappointment on his face, and heard Matt whisper to him, "Looks like she prefers men who churn their own butter." but I ignored them in my eagerness to count Amish people.  
  
****************************************  
Forty-five minutes and twenty-three and a half (Chris counted the half, don't ask) Amish people later, we were bored yet again.

"I'm hungry." Frankie stated as he stared blankly at the ceiling of the tour bus.

"You complain a lot." I noted out loud.

"Shut up." he laughed.

"There's plenty of food on here. Find something." Jesse told him, as he typed away on his laptop.

"No, I want to stop somewhere." he groaned.

Greg looked at his watch. "Yeah it's almost five. Let's stop at the next McDonald's."

Matt shook his head. "We had that yesterday."

"So?" Greg asked.

"So. I don't want it again." Matt gave him a dirty look.

"Fine, we don't have to. Let's eat there." he said pointing to a sign for a Friendly's at the next exit.

"Works for me!" I said my mouth watering.

"Can we stop for some grub!?" Jesse screamed up to the front of the bus.  
  
****************************************

Friendly's was packed, so Matt, Chris, Greg, Frankie, Jesse and I sat in a booth together in a separate section from the crew and family. "Be good!" Maryann warned before separating from us.

"What does she think we're going to do?" Greg asked laughing.

"Don't get us kicked out again, Greg." Frankie laughed.

" _Me_?" he said in an "I'm innocent" voice as he scooted into the booth.

"YOU PINCHED THE WAITRESS' BUTT!" Jesse screamed, and a few people in the surrounding area stopped and stared at them.

"Shhhh! She was hot!" He said kicking Jesse under the table.

"Don't let him sit on the end!" Chris warned everyone. I muffled my giggles as Greg turned bright red.

We finally settled down (I was sitting between Greg and Matt and Jesse, Frankie and Chris were opposite us) and picked up our menus to order.

"I'm not that hungry..." Frankie said as he searched the menu.

"You're such a freak." Jesse said hitting him in the back of his head.

As they were bickering like an old married couple, I decided on my dinner, closed my menu shut, and told them I'd be right back and headed off to the ladies room.  
  
****************************************

In the bathroom, I went about my business and then stopped at the mirror to pretty myself up. It was slightly chilly in the restaurant so I decided to take my hair down. Thankfully it wasn't frizzy so I just ran a comb through it quickly, re-applied my lip gloss and was on my way back to our table.

As I approached the table I noticed 2 blond girls about our age standing by the booth. Jesse saw me coming first and made a low whistle and raised his eyebrows. "Looking good, Koree!" he shouted. I laughed and rolled my eyes, and the two girls turned to me and looked me up and down and then shot me evil glares.

I looked at our table and saw the guys signing autographs for them. Once Matt stood up to let be back into my spot in the booth and I was just beginning to take a sip of my water, one of the girls who were still glaring at me turned to the boys, "So who's girlfriend is _she_?" she asked in a flat voice.

I couldn't help but start cracking up and I nearly spit my water all of the table. "I am not with any of them." I said between laughs.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Matt asked. "We're not _that_ bad are we?"

I was still laughing as I shook my head. Just at this time, our waitress returned to the table with our food. As she placed eat plate down, Jesse spoke up, "Well girls, it's always nice to meet fans, but we're going to eat now? Cool?" he said attempting not to sound too mean, but wanting their privacy.

"Um...yeah...ok." the same girl who had asked about me said, taking her autographed napkin from the table. They started walking away but the other one turned around sharply. "Chris? Can I have a hug!?" she asked as if it was a last attempt to be with the guys a little longer.

"For you? Anything." Chris said slyly. He got up and gave her an 'I'm hot and I know it' molesting type hug that probably made the girl piss in her pants. I could already tell he was good at playing with girls' minds and probably breaking their hearts.

I started to eat my oriental chicken salad, when I felt Greg's arm wrap around my waist. I turned to him and looked at him with question in my eyes. He made a motion with his eyes towards the fans back at their table who were watching them closely. "Let's play?" he asked in a somewhat pleading voice, he nibbled on my ear, and I got a chill down my spine.

"Fiiiine." I agreed, even though I just wanted to eat my salad. Having a cute boy nibbling on your ear persuades one easily. 

Greg picked up a fry from his burger platter and fed it to me. Following his initiative I put a piece of chicken on my fork and fed it to him. He licked his lips, "Yummy...but I bet I know something even better." he said leaning in and kissing me. I closed my eyes and felt his tongue start to enter my mouth, and at the same time realized our table had suddenly turned silent. My eyes flashed open to see not only the girls staring at us (with disgust of course), but Frankie, Chris, Jesse and Matt with very confused expressions. Greg quickly pulled away from the kiss.

"What was that about?" Frankie asked.

Greg just chuckled, "We were just playing." he smiled. "Right, Koree?"

I was just staring at his lips, and I must have had a blank expression on my face.

"Right, Kor?" he asked again.

"What?" I asked suddenly coming out of my daze. "Oh yeah...just...playing." I finished off. But I wasn't too sure I was convinced that that was all it was to me.

  
****************************************

We ate the rest of our meal as if nothing had happened, and Greg continued to playfully flirt with me the entire time. I was falling for him...fast. A part of me was saying I shouldn't start to like him. He was in a boy band, and hell, I didn't even know him. But the other part of me, which I seemed to be listening to more, was telling me to go for it. I was so unsure of things at that moment.

After a little while our places had been cleared our ice cream sundaes arrived. Mine was cookies and cream with Reese's Pieces, hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry on top. I took a spoonful of whipped cream and ate it letting it melt in my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Matt watching me. He'd been looking at me that way all day, and truthfully he was making me pretty nervous.

The guys were all in a heated debate about baseball teams and though Matt was part of the conversation he wasn't talking much anymore. If he was going to stare at me, I thought I might as well put on a show for him. I picked up my cherry from it's stem and licked around it before biting it off sensually. I then proceeded to tie a knot in the stem with my tongue. Just as I was finishing, Matt still watching, I was suddenly pulled back into the reality of the table as I felt an ice cream sundae being shoved into my face from across the table.

My jaw dropped and everyone else was cracking up. I wiped the whipped cream from my eyes to see Chris holding a sundae with very little whipped cream left on it. "I forgot to tell the waitress I didn't want any. I had to put it _somewhere_." he said as if it was the natural thing to do.

"CHRIS!" I exclaimed. "I'm gonna get you back...you just wait." I warned him.

"Oooo." Frankie mocked me.

"You too!" I laughed.

Greg took his finger and dipped it into the whipped cream on my right cheek. He took a big glob and licked it off his finger. "Koree, you really _are_ yummy!" I was wiping the whipped cream from my face when Greg leaned over and whispered, "Want me to lick the rest off?" I just laughed and elbowed him.

Frankie and Chris had stopped paying attention to the mess they'd created of me, and I took that opportunity to grab my ice cold water as well as Matt's glass and pour them directly over each of their heads. Chris jumped up and let out a scream, and Frankie just sat in shock as the cold water cascaded over his body.

Just as this was happening, our waitress was coming out of the kitchen with meals for a table behind us. She didn't notice the puddle that had formed on the floor beside our table and slipped. She, as well as the food went flying.

"RUN!" a drenched and dripping Chris screamed and we all quickly jumped from our seats and ran straight out the restaurant. So much for staying out of trouble.


	4. Chapter 4

**TOOTHPASTE**

After being forced to re-enter the restaurant and apologize to the Friendly's management for the havoc we had caused (though none of us were able to keep a straight face) we were on the road again.

Everyone was just chilling, and having some leisurely time. Matt was flipping through a copy of Sports Illustrated Magazine, with Frankie glancing over his shoulder making an occasional comment. Jesse had his headphones on and was listening to, what from the sound emerging from the ear pieces appeared to be, BB Mak. Chris and I were watching a video of Happy Gilmore on one of the bus TV's and Greg was taking a nap in his tiny tour bus bed.

I was only half paying attention to the movie because I was busy thinking about Greg and our little kiss in Friendly's. Since then we had exchanged a few more pecks on the cheek, and I knew he was teasing me. It was frustrating, but it just made me want him more.

"EARTH TO KOREE." Chris said loudly waving his hand in front of my face. I jumped back into reality suddenly.

"Sorry about that...I was just thinking." I said shaking my head to get rid of my thoughts.

"About what?" Chris asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing." I said trying to play it off.

"I bet I know." Frankie said from across the bus. I gave him a look that said 'oh really?' and he proceeded. "I bet you were thinking about Mr. Gregory Raposo." he said matter of factly.

Matt just peered over the top of his magazine at me.

"Hmm..." I said slowly. "It's a possibility." I winked and then put my attention back towards the movie.

"Oooh!" Frankie exclaimed. " _Someone_ 's got the hots for Greg."

I shrugged my shoulders still glued to the TV with a half smile plastered on my face. I tried to brush off what they were saying, but there was one thing I couldn't just shake off. I felt Matt's eyes piercing into the back of my head.  
  
****************************************  
It was around 9:30PM and Frankie was attempting to teach me to play Poker (with little success) when we felt the tour bus come to a stop. Peering out the window I saw that we had finally pulled up to the Pittsburgh Sheraton. 

"I think we're here." I said to Frankie, placing my hand face down on the table.

"You think?" he asked sarcastically.

"Alright everyone," Lou said coming back towards us, "gather your things and let's get checked in."

Everyone grabbed some of their stuff and we hopped off the bus. As we were beginning to walk towards the entrance, I realized Greg was still asleep in the bus. "It might be a good idea if someone woke Greg up." I thought out loud.

"Let him stay there." Matt joked, though it almost sounded as though he really meant it.

"Very funny." I rolled my eyes and handed him my bag. "Bring this in for me? I'll be right back." I said placing my duffel bag strap around his shoulder and running back over to the bus.

"Yeah, yeah." Matt groaned once I was already half way to the bus.

****************************************

I pulled the tour bus door open and though it was my mission to wake Greg up, I found myself creeping carefully and quietly over to his "cubby." I slowly pulled open the curtain, to see the deeply sleeping boy. He was beautiful. I couldn't help but reach out and stroke a piece of his hair that had fallen out of place.

He stirred and I was quickly brought back to my senses. I took him by the shoulders and shook him lightly. "Greg, wake up...we're at the hotel." He groaned and rolled over.

"Greg, come on!" I said rolling him back over. He just groaned again and made no effort to get up.

"Greg!!!!! Get your ass up!" I pleaded. When I got no response I realized a new game plan was necessary to get the boy out of bed. He had closed his eyes back up, and was almost back to his slumber when I exerted a sudden force, pulling him by the legs out of his bunk and to the ground. "See you inside." I laughed.

As I started walking back towards the front of the bus, I felt a hand reach out and grab my ankle and before I could do anything about it, Greg had managed to trip me and and I toppled over, falling directly on top of him. We were both laughing as we wrestled each other on the floor, rolling around what little space their was. 

Shortly we were both out of breath and had stopped. Greg was now on top of me and we were both breathing hard as he looked into my eyes. We stayed like this for a few moments and he started to lean in and kiss me. I wanted so badly to feel my lips against his again, but something deep down inside told me not to let it happen, and I jumped up and cleared my throat, "The others are probably wondering where we are..." I explained.

"Right..." he said rolling his eyes.

****************************************

Greg and I entered the hotel lobby to see Lou engaging in a heated argument with the woman at the desk. Everyone was standing around or had slumped into one of the comfortable chairs waiting for their room keys. I collapsed in one beside Jesse and was about to ask him what was going on when Lou came over to the group with a few keys in hand. He spoke quietly with the parents for a moment and then raised his voice so everyone could hear.

"As we promised, you guys don't have to stay in rooms with your parents this tour," Lou addressed Frankie, Matt, Jesse, Greg and Chris. "I was hoping that the rooms would be on the same floor, but it _seems as though they gave other people some of the rooms in our cluster_." he said, saying the second part loud enough for the hotel personnel to hear. "So, we're going to have to trust you and let you stay separately from us."

All the boys tried to contain their excitement. "Really? That's too bad." Greg said, not too convincingly.

"I'm sure you're devastated!" His mother laughed.

"All three rooms are connected, so here," Lou began as he separated the keys. "Greg, Frankie and Chris, you guys take 706. Matt and Jesse take 710, and Koree, you take 708." He said handed them their keys.

"No fair! Koree gets her own room?" Chris complained.

"We like her far too much to stick her in a room with any of you guys!" Claudia laughed.

"Very funny." Jesse said, lightly punching Claudia in the side. "You just know she'd be far too tempted to try something at night with me." He said throwing me a sexy look.

"Oh yeah... I love me some fourteen year olds." I laughed rolling my eyes.

Jesse just shot me a nasty look and turned around. I didn't realize he was so sensitive about his age. Oh well.

****************************************  
It took awhile to get up to our floor (because Chris felt the need to press the button for every single floor when we entered the elevator) and by the time we did, I was ready to collapse into bed. "Good night boys." I said groggily as I entered my room.

I searched through my luggage for my sleeping attire and finally pulled out a pair of blue and black boxers and a blue tank top. I quickly undressed and as I was pulling my shirt over my head I heard a knock on the door connecting my room to Frankie, Greg and Chris' room. "Hang on!" I shouted as I straightened out my shirt.

I opened the door to see Greg standing there shirtless. I was unprepared for the site of his tanned, smooth chest and well formed muscles. My knees went weak. I nearly peed in my pants on the spot. I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. After a few moments I recovered, "Hi." I managed to get the words to slip out of my lips.

He let out a short laugh, and then held up his toothbrush which I hadn't noticed was in his right hand. "I forgot my toothpaste, can I borrow yours?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah...hang on, let me find it." I said walking back into my room. He followed close behind me. 

"Nice room." he noted as he sat down at the edge of my king sized bed and looked around. When I returned with my Colgate in hand I followed his eyes and saw that he was looking at my bra which was laying on the floor from when I changed.

As I walked towards him to hand him the toothpaste, I swept my bra off the floor and threw it at him letting it land on his head. "Thought you might want a better look." I laughed and dropped the toothpaste in his lap.

He pulled the bra from his head, and his cheeks were turning a crimson shade. "Hm," he said playing it off. He looked down at the bra label. "34B. That's good to know." he said while eyeing my chest. It was my turn to blush. I took the bra from his hands and threw it behind me as I plopped down beside him.

I turned towards him, "Your breath smells." I noted. "Go brush your teeth."

"No it doesn't." he protested.

"Does too!" I laughed

"Does not." he replied.

"Yes it does, yes it does!" I exclaimed.

"No it doesn't!" he said squeezing my sides and tickling me to death. 

We fell back on to the bed and he continued to tickle me through my laughs and little yelps begging him to stop. I was getting chills down my spine from the closeness. We were finally out of breath and as I lay there catching mine, he gave me a tiny kiss on my forehead and hopped up off the bed. "Goodnight Koree." he laughed.

"Night." I whispered smiling contently. As he walked back into his room, I couldn't help but notice-- cute butt!

****************************************

A half hour later I was still laying awake in bed, my thoughts keeping me up. All I could think about was Greg. I'd known him all of one day, but God, he seemed amazing. I could just eat him up. He was so forward and brought out a side of me that I didn't even know existed. I wasn't afraid to say things I never could have said the day before, and I felt ready for anything. If only I knew the anythings that were ahead of me.

I was almost nodding off when I heard the door connected to Greg's room creak open. My eyes popped open and I saw Greg inside my room, closing the door behind him. "Chris snores." he whispered. "Can I sleep in here?"

Without thinking I nodded my head yes, and the next thing I knew there was a boxer clad boy beside me in bed. I closed my eyes for a moment as I felt him wrap his left arm around my waist and pull me close to him. I swallowed. I didn't know what to do. My body tensed up, and Greg noticed. He brushed a piece of my hair back behind my ear, "Relax." he whispered.

I tried to relax, I really did, but I was nervous. The silence and the closeness was driving me insane. He was laying there, leaning on his elbow so he was somewhat above me, just staring at me with this half smile playing over his mouth. I thought maybe I should say something to break the silence but as I opened my mouth, Greg held his finger to it. "Shh." he said and let his finger dwindle there for a moment. Before I knew what was happening, his lips had replaced his finger and we were exchanging a deep kiss.

When we separated, I was breathless. As I recovered, he began to drop little kisses down my neck, nibbling lightly at some points. I was in heaven, and without even thinking, I began to run my hands up and down his chest, feeling up his muscles. He was so friggin sexy I couldn't stand it.

His kisses had reached my shoulder and he had no where to go. He started to tug on my shirt, and I was so caught in the moment that I lifted my arms up so he could easily remove it, without even thinking. His eyes were full of lust as he kissed my lips once again and while our lips were interlocked I felt his hand creep towards a part of me that no guy had ever seen before him,

let alone touched.

We were so caught up in what was going on in the bed that neither of us heard the other door open or saw Matt standing the doorway with a look of shock plastered across his face. Something made me look up and my eyes caught his and he just looked at me with disgust. Greg saw my eyes had shifted and turned his attention to the door way as well. 

I scrambled to cover myself up with the blanket, and Matt suddenly realized that he was just standing there and staring. "I uh..." he said with his bottom lip trembling. "I thought this was the bathroom." he said slamming the door behind him.

"Shit." Greg said under his breath.


	5. Chapter 5

**I'M NOT THIRSTY**

"Ring, ring." the hotel room phone sang to me. I rolled over as it woke me up and noticed the absence of Greg (after our incident with Matt, I had pulled my shirt back over my head and fell asleep with my arms wrapped around Greg). I glanced at the bedside clock and saw that it was 8:37AM. I picked the phone up on the fourth ring. "Hello?" I asked groggily.

"Rise and shine!" I heard a boy's cheery voice on the other end of the line.

"Who is this?" I asked still half asleep.

"I'm offended." the voice said.

"I'm going back to bed." I replied about to hang up.

"It's Chris, you dumbass." Chris laughed.

"Ooh," I said in realization. "Sorry, I guess I don't recognize your voice yet."

"Whatever you say." he laughed. "I'm just calling from the lobby to let you know that just about everyone is down here grabbing something to eat from the buffet, and you have to be ready to go at 9:30."

I groaned, wishing I could get three thousand more hours of sleep.

"Oh, and do me a favor?" Chris asked.

"Sure." I said without thinking.

"Save me a call. Go wake Matt up." he said. "Thanks! See you-- OOh Pancakes!" I heard as he hung up.

I was still laying in the bed, when my jaw dropped realizing I would have to see Matt. My head was spinning. I was almost thankful to Matt for coming in when he did. Had he not, I realized, I might have gone a lot further than I ever would have wanted to if I wasn't under the spell of Greg. But that didn't mean I was ready to face the boy by _any_ means.  
  
****************************************

I had slowly gotten dressed in a bright blue spaghetti string tank and a pair of short denim shorts, trying to take as much time up as possible, to delay facing Matt. I slipped each foot into my blue strappy sandals and picked up my matching bag. I sighed. There was nothing else for me to procrastinate with.  
  
I left my room, making sure to grab my key on the way out, and took a few steps towards Matt's room. "Here goes nothing." I thought to myself. I lifted my hand to knock and just as I was about to make contact with the door, it swung open and there stood Matt.  
  
We were both taken aback, and took a few steps in the opposite directions from the other. There was a moment of silence, which Matt broke with, "Did you want something?" in an empty voice.  
  
"I just wanted to tell you that everyone is downstairs eating, and we have to go in like 20 minutes." I said, with a soft smile.  
  
His expression remained emotionless, "OK." he said flatly.  
  
I stood there, trying to find the right words. I knew I had to say something about what he had witnessed the night before, but I didn't know what.  
  
"Anything else?" he asked trying not to make eye contact with me.

"Um..." I spat out, "Are you OK with...uh...what you witnessed?" I said, now myself trying to avoid eye contact.  
  
There was a long silence before he said, "It's none of my business. Why wouldn't I be OK?"

I didn't really believe what he was saying, even though he sounded pretty sure of himself. I just shrugged my shoulders.

"Well, I was about to go lift some weights real quick before we have to go. I'll see you in the convention center, we have an interview. Save me a muffin, ok?" He smiled, completely changing his expression from when I had first come to the door.

"OK, I'll do that." I smiled back, and we walked off in opposite directions.  
  
****************************************  
I took the elevator down seven floors to the lobby, and turned into the dining room. I scanned the bustling room for the Dream Street entourage. I didn't see the orange flying right for me until it was almost too late, but I swiftly caught it with one hand. I looked in the direction it had flown from and spotted Chris, Frankie and Jesse laughing hysterically. I walked over rolling my eyes. "Nice catch, Koree." Frankie noted.

"Yeah, yeah." I laughed. "So how is everyone today?" There was a chorus of alrights and pretty goods. 

"How about you Koree, have a good time last night?" Jesse nudged me in the side and Frankie and Chris looked at me with all knowing smiles and exchanged looks.

My cheeks turned bright red. Had Greg told them what happened? Did Matt? Did they even know?

"What he means," I heard a voice behind me, and hands landing on my shoulders. Looking back I saw it was Greg. "What he means is, did you sleep well Koree?" he said in a firm voice that seemed to warn the others to lay off.

I tried to play things off anyhow, "Yeah, as good as anyone can on a hotel bed." I laughed.

"Get used to it." Frankie told me just as he'd shoveled a heaping spoonful of frosted flakes into his mouth. The cereal sloshed around and some came flying out as he spoke.

"How appetizing." I noted. "So what are we doing today?"

"Three magazine interviews in 20 minutes, photo shoot at 12, sound check for tomorrow's concert at 3, interview with Pittsburgh NBC at 5, meeting with record execs at 6:30, and back here by 8." Greg listed as he sat in the empty chair beside me.

"You mean that's all?" I laughed as I began to peel my orange.

"You can tough it out Koree." Frankie smiled wickedly and looked around the table, "When we get back we can do whatever we want."

"Hey Lou," Jesse turned around in his seat and tapped their producer on the shoulder, "Did you ask the hotel manager if they can leave the pool open for us?" 

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it." he promised, looking down at his watch. "Guys, time to go to the convention center for the interviews, so finish up."

In a matter of seconds Greg, Chris, Frankie and Jesse had managed to stuff whatever food they had left into their mouths and were running out the door. I followed behind, stopping to choose a muffin for Matt. As I was contemplating between corn muffin or blueberry muffin, Greg ran back into the room and pulled me away from the table with him, but I managed to swipe a blueberry.

****************************************

About ten and a half hours later we were back at the hotel, exhausted as ever. We ate and by then it was about 9:30PM.

I had never before realized how much work was involved in what they did. Sure most of it was laughs and messing around, but I noticed they put on completely different faces for the interviewers and then for the record company than they did for me. It was almost as if each guy was three completely different people.

Even though I'd just sat back and absorbed everything around me all day, I was still pretty tired by then. I had excused myself from the hotel restaurant and gone up to my room for some chill time. I turned the television on and flipped the channels for awhile, but nothing was on. I turned it back off and shuffled through my luggage for a moment before pulling out a journal my mother had bought me for the trip. I hadn't written anything in the past few days, and after yesterday I had a lot to think and write about.

In the middle of my scribbling about the whole Greg/Matt incident, I heard a knock on my door. "Hang on!" I called out and quickly hid my journal back inside my bag, with some clothes covering it. I walked over to the door and opened it to see Jesse, Frankie and Chris standing there in swim trunks.

"Hey... what's up?" I asked, glancing down and admiring Frankie's stomach.

"We're going down to the pool. Matt and Greg are already down there. Get your suit on, we'll wait for you." Frankie said.

"Agh, ok, give me five?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's fine, we'll be in Jesse's room. Come in when you're done."

I started closing the door behind me, and I realized Chris was following behind me acting naturally. "Uh-uh, I don't think so, Chris!"

"Damn!" he exclaimed and went into Jesse's room with the others.  
  
****************************************

I had put on a slightly revealing black two piece on and was just entering the pool area with the guys. Even though I was normally pretty modest, I decided I wanted to show my body off to these boys. We spotted Greg and Matt through the glass door, in some kind of heating conversation when we arrived. The door was locked so no other guests could get in, and we had to have one of them let us in. 

I knocked on the door and both of them seemed caught off guard. They looked at me, and then at each other, and Matt walked over to us with an annoyed look in his eyes, but as soon as he got to the door and opened it for us, I saw him look me up and down and smile. He looked like he was about to say something to me, but before he could, I heard my name being called from the opposite direction. 

I twirled around to see Greg had slipped into the hot tub. "Kor, come here?" he asked, pleading with his eyes. I separated from the others and walked over to him. I was standing outside the hot tub and looked down at him, "Hey you." I smiled.

"Come in here with me." he told me.

I saw Matt watching us from about thirty feet away. I gave Greg a half smile, "Maybe later." I said.

He pouted and stood up, coming next to me. He put his hands on my waist and turned me so that I was facing him. I tried not to make eye contact, because I knew if I did I'd be under his spell. "You look really beautiful." he said, carefully taking a piece of my hair, that had fallen in front of my face, behind my ear.

He was making me go weak in my knees. I knew I shouldn't have, but I _had_ to look up. He raised his eyebrows and then smiled sweetly. I found myself drawn to him, and the next thing I knew, I was kissing him delicately on the lips.

"Woohoo!!!!" I heard Frankie's voice whoop out. 

"Way to go, Greg!" Jesse yelled out.

I had managed to completely forget that there were other people around. I looked over towards the other guys and my cheeks turned bright red. I tried not to look at Matt.

Greg took my hand, "Just ignore them." he said rolling his eyes. I shrugged my shoulders as Greg led me into the hot tub. He let go once I'd settled down inside, and I realized I was sitting in the hot tub I thought I remembered saying I wasn't going to get in.

I glanced back to where the other guys were messing around, about to jump into the pool, and Matt was kind of off to the side. I saw him ask Chris something and Chris got a wicked look in his eyes. He pulled a key from his pocket and walked over to what looked like a storage room. When he emerged he was carrying a big paper bag. Greg's hazel eyes gleamed.

"Bring some of that shit over here!" he yelled to Chris. Chris came over to the edge of the hot tub and the other guys surrounded as well. He started pulling out bottle after bottle, and I realized they'd smuggled in beer, hard lemonade and wine coolers. I got nervous. Really nervous. I always told myself if a situation like that arose, I wouldn't drink...but here the situation was, and I didn't know if it'd be that easy.

Matt was the first one to take a drink, and as he took his first swig of beer he looked straight at me. I turned and tried to ignore it but his eyes were burning into my back. As he, Chris and Jesse walked away, Greg turned to me. "Koree, what's your poison?" Greg asked gesturing towards the array of drinks.

"Uh..." I muttered. "I'm not thirsty."

Frankie and Greg both started cracking up. "What, I'm not..." I said defending myself.

"Someone's a chicken..." Frankie started, "Bok, Bok!" he mocked me.

"WHAT!?" I asked annoyed.

"Koree..." Greg looked at me seriously, "Come on, just one drink."

"No," I shook my head. "I told you, I'm not thirsty..." I said looking down.

"My ass you're not thirsty." Frankie rolled his eyes. "Koree, have you ever had a drink?" he asked with a devilish look in his eyes.

I looked up at him and I bit my bottom lip. "Maybe?" I said with a little laugh.

"Are you kidding me?" Greg asked wide eyed.

I laughed again, "Honestly?" I admitted, "No, I never have."

As soon as I said that, the guys went nuts. "You guys!" Frankie called to Jesse, Matt and Chris who were sitting by the side of the pool with their drinks. "Koree hasn't ever gotten drunk!" All three of them looked up surprised.

"Oh my God, shut up!!!" I said hitting Frankie lightly a couple of times. Chris and Jesse came over by the hot tub and looked at me carefully. The looks in their eyes made me nervous. 

"I think we're going to have to get the girl drunk...what do you think Frankie?" Chris asked.

"That sounds like a good idea." Frankie nodded. "What's your opinion Greg?"

"If little Jesse here can drunk, then I think it's only fair that Koree does too." he laughed, even though Jesse gave him a nice punch in the stomach for his comment on his age.

"Then I guess it's decided." Jesse said picking up a hard lemonade, opening it and handing it to me.

I held it in my hands and read the label. "Um..." I started, "Don't I have to agree too?" I asked.

"Come on, Koree." Greg said placing his hand on my left thigh. He knew what he was doing to me, and it was working.

"FINE!" I submitted to them. "I guess one drink can't hurt." I said and took a tiny sip. I could taste the alcohol, but it wasn't that bad.

"That wasn't that hard, now was it?" Greg asked, running his hand down my leg.  
  
****************************************

An hour later I was feeling quite the buzz. After my first drink, it had been a lot easier for them to convince me into drinking another...and then another...By then me and Greg had joined the rest of the guys in the pool. We had been messing around for awhile and were in the middle of a very violent splashing fight. 

Chris was swimming around making strange Tarzan noises as he splashed and Jesse was quietly speaking gibberish to himself as he wandered the pool aimlessly. At the same time Frankie seemed to deliberately splash me directly in the eye and at the same time I felt the presence of someone behind me. Before I could react, I felt my bikini top being unhooked. The next thing I knew, the black piece of material was floating away on top of the water and my chest was exposed, and the Tarzan noises and quiet gibberish had ceased.

Even under the influence of the alcohol, I had some sense of what was going on and my reflexes told me to cover myself up. I held one arm and hand over my boobs and reached for my top with the other. I wasn't quick enough, and Matt swiped it up and dangled it from one finger. "It's not like I've never seen them before." he chortled. "I mean two-fifths of us got a look yesterday." he glanced sideways at Greg. "But," he paused, " _his_ look was better...I think it'd be only fair if you let me take a nice long look too." he said slurring some of the words.

"I don't." Greg said giving Matt the look of death.

"Take it easy Greg..." Jesse piped in, "I wouldn't mind seeing your hooters!" he said turning to me.

Greg ignored Jesse's comment and continued giving Matt the look. He then broke the stare and swam to the pool's edge to take a drink. As soon as his back was turned Matt inched closer to me. Without words he put his hand over mine, looked directly in my eyes and smiled as he moved my hand down from it's covering position. Though I was tipsy, and didn't feel the need to say no, had I been sober, I think I probably would have allowed it to happen anyhow.

My arm dropped to my side as I felt his finger trace the way towards my breasts and then replace his hand for where mine had been, grasping my left breast. I forgot anyone else was around and allowed my eyes to close as I felt him tease my sensitive nipple. Suddenly the contact was missing and I shot my eyes open to see Greg pulling him away from me. "What the fuck are you doing?" he said clenching his teeth.

Jesse, Frankie, Chris and I just looked on at the scene unfolding in front of us. "What does it look like I'm doing?" Matt asked pushing Greg off of him.

"It looks like you're making the moves on my claim." Greg said giving Matt a shove. Matt fell back a little and the water around him ran out in ripples.

"Your claim?" Matt laughed. "You little prick..." he said coming back over to Greg. "I told you I liked her from the second we saw her walking towards the tour bus, and we just talked about it. You said you were just playing with her for fun."

"Your point?" Greg glared at him.

"My point is," Matt said with emphasis, "I stepped away from Robyn for you. You couldn't do the same thing for me?" Matt asked.

Greg laughed. "That's because you're a pussy, Matt."

Without another word Matt's fist made contact with Greg's face.


	6. Chapter 6

**APOLOGIES**

  
When I woke up the next morning to the 8AM wake up call, the room was spinning. I sat up in bed and felt throbbing in my head, and immediately laid back down, but a queasiness in my stomach forced me to get back up and run to the bathroom. I flung the toilet seat up and emptied part of the contents of my stomach into it. "So this is a hangover." I thought to myself. To top it all off my mind was swimming and I couldn't seem to remember anything that had happened between getting into a hot tub with Greg, agreeing to a wine cooler and waking up that morning.

I heard a quiet knock on the bathroom door and was slightly startled to see Matt standing behind me. He was already dressed in a gray and red A/X t-shirt and a pair of gray shorts. I got dizzy from just looking up at him and turned my attention back to the pearl white toilet bowl.

"Are you OK?" He asked entering the bathroom and coming behind me. He pulled my hair, which was hanging all over the place, back and held it behind me so it was out of the way. As I continued to throw up, he rubbed a hand up and down my back to soothe me. Even though I was sick, his presence made me smile.

As my nausea began to pass the events of the previous night began coming back to me in quick flashes. I saw Greg's hand on my thigh, my bikini top slipping off, Matt's hand on my breast, Greg fighting with Matt, Matt punching Greg in the face. As these pictures passed through my mind I felt myself becoming sick again and a new wave of nausea came over me and I continued to throw up.

The whole time, Matt sat behind me quietly, rubbing my back. After awhile, there wasn't anything else left in my system to release and I slowly tried to get up, but I was feeling really weak and sort of fell back, but Matt supported me and pulled me up. He released my hair and filled a cup with some water. "You should drink this, to get the taste out of your mouth." he said handing it to me.

"Thanks." I whispered and took some water, swished it around my mouth and spit out, then drank the rest of the glass and put it down. I looked down and realized all I had on was a big t-shirt that only went down to my mid-thigh. "Sorry." I blushed as I noticed him looking at my legs.

"What are you apologizing for?" he asked. I didn't say anything, and then I met his eyes. "Listen," he said, "I don't know if you remember what happened last night..."

"I think I do." I admitted looking down.

"Well, listen, I'm really sorry. I never should have done the things I did. I was conscience enough to know better. I feel awful."

"It's OK." I said.

"No, it's not. I...it was just wrong." he shook his head.

"It's OK." I promised him, putting his hand in mine.

My head was still throbbing and we just stood there for awhile like that, me leaning against the sink counter to steady myself. A few more thoughts swirled around my mind and a conversation kept playing over and over again in my mind. "Matt," I said slowly. "Can I ask you something?"

He nodded his head, "Anything."

I paused for a moment before asking. "Last night, you said something about Greg saying he was just playing with me for fun...and something about someone named Rachel or something...what was that all about..." I asked, and then more quietly, "Was he really just playing with me?" I felt the tears start to well up inside and bit my bottom lip.

"Maybe you should talk to him about that part of it..." Matt said squeezing my hand.

I wanted to cry, but I put all my concentration into not doing that. "What about that Rachel...no wait, Robyn, thing?" I asked trying to change the topic slightly.

"Robyn." Matt repeated. "She was this girl we met when we were in California two months ago. She was hot as hell, but the slutty type. Greg wanted her from the moment she walked through our signing line. He asked her for her number and invited her to ride the rides with us on the boardwalk the next day. She barely said a word to him all night, and kept flirting with me. I was interested... I mean she was gorgeous and she wanted to be with me...but, I respected Greg and turned her down." He said telling me the abridged version of what had happened.

"Oh..." I said, getting a ping of jealously when he talked about Greg being attracted to another girl.

"You were my Robyn." Matt said finishing the story and looking down.

It all came together with that final sentence. I realized Matt really cared for me, and he'd shown it to me that morning. But I was still hurt, confused and my head was still pounding. I just squeezed his hand tighter.

  
****************************************

We talked for an hour, just me and Matt, in my room. We talked about home, my friends, his friends. We talked about my writing and his music. We talked about sports, and we talked about Belgium waffles. I talked about more with him in that hour than I'd said in total to the four others, even Greg.

"Hey," Matt said suddenly, "We have to be down there in ten minutes...I need to finish packing." he said getting up.

I smiled, "Yeah, and I should probably change." I laughed looking down at my t-shirt clad body.

"If you want, you can meet me back in my room and we can go down to the bus together." Matt offered, with hope in his eyes.

"I'd like that." I smiled as he left for his room.

I quickly got dressed in a comfortable pair of black shorts and a deep purple tank top and was ready within a few minutes. I looked into the dresser mirror and groaned at my reflection. I looked the way I felt. My head was still hurting, I'd thrown up and I was dead tired. Oh well, Matt didn't seem to mind I realized and smiled to myself.

I gathered my stuff and dragged in into Matt's room. He was bent over putting things into a duffel bag, singing "It Happens Every Time" to himself. I laughed out loud. He looked up and flashed a huge grin.

"You go around singing your own songs?" I laughed.

"Hey! I can't help if it's in my head." he laughed along with me.

"You're funny." I noted and just smiled. I stood there as he packed, now having quieted down to a hum, and had a simple smile on my face. As he was zipping his bag up, I came behind him and as he got up, I spun him around. "Thanks for everything." I whispered. I wrapped my arms around him, embracing him and gave him a peck on his lips.

I stepped back and looked at him, biting my bottom lip. It only took me a moment to nearly pounce on him, putting my arms around his neck, pressing my body against his, and giving him a deep kiss. Our tongues met and danced between our mouths. He had placed his hands on my ass and was gently squeezing it.

After a minute or so he pulled away. I was panting and I looked at him with question in my eyes. "Why did you pull away?" I asked confused.

"I just wanted to make sure you were aware of what was happening..." He said quietly, trailing off at the end.

I looked into his blue eyes. They were so innocent. "I'm quite aware." I whispered, with a seductive smile playing on my lips. I took a hold of him from his shirt and brought him close to my body again and kissed him hard. We continued kissing and we gradually made our way towards his bed. He pushed me down on the bed and began to hungrily kiss my neck. My eyes were closed and I was breathing heavily, but suddenly my eyes shot open when I remembered what time it was. "Matt." I said getting up. "We were supposed to be down there 10 minutes ago... they're going to come looking soon."

Matt groaned, "It was just getting good!" He said his eyes all lit up.

"There's always later..." I smiled. "After the concert tonight, we can have a little... after party." I winked.

We both laughed and began pulling our things out into the hall and to the elevator. When the elevator opened it was empty aside from one person. Standing in the corner was Greg Raposo, complete with a somewhat black eye.

"They sent me to come get the two of you... guess you didn't need me." He said flatly, having noticed us seeming to be pretty happy.  
  
We stepped inside the elevator and it closed behind us. This time, I felt Greg's eyes burning into me instead of Matt's. I tried not to look at either of them. Seeing Greg had re-triggered my feelings for him and that scared me, and I knew that if I looked at Matt he'd be able to tell. The elevator ride seven floors down seemed to take an eternity. When we finally reached the lobby and the elevator doors opened, Greg turned to Matt, "Nice lipstick." and walked out the hotel with his hands in his pocket.

I looked at Matt and realized some of my lip gloss had transferred to his lips when we had exchanged our kisses. I turned my attention back to the entrance of the hotel and kept watching Greg, and once he thought he was out of view I saw him kick the tour bus and mutter some stuff to himself.

"Come on," Matt said quietly. "We have to go." He said taking my hand. I held it reluctantly as we walked to the bus.  
  
****************************************

When we walked on the bus, the parents and management in the front were talking happily but as we made our way towards the back it seemed to silence. Jesse and Chris sat together as well as Greg and Frankie, and both pairs had been talking quietly but as we approached, they stopped abruptly.

"I'm going to sit alone and write a little, ok?" I said quietly to Matt.

"Yeah." he said, and then came closer and whispered, "This will turn out alright, I promise." He kissed me on the cheek (which received looks from the other four boys) and then he settled down by himself with a magazine.

I went all the way to the back of the bus and locked myself in the back room. I was writing my feelings and thoughts down for a good 40 minutes when I heard a knock on the door. I quickly slammed my journal shut and meekly asked, "Who is it?"

There was a long pause and I asked again, "Who is it?"

The person on the other side of the door cleared his throat and mumbled, "It's Greg." I froze and there was another long pause. "Can I come in?" he asked.

Without any words I pushed the door slightly open as an invitation for him to enter. He opened it all the way, and came in. As the door closed behind him I saw Matt watching with a look mixed with concern and jealously.

Greg and I stayed silent. The only noise in the tiny room was the buzz of the air conditioner. I was getting nervous from the way I could tell Greg was just staring at me. It kept seeming as though he was about to say something, but the words didn't follow the action.

"Koree..." he finally said quietly taking my hand. I jerked it back.

"What?" I snapped. When I realized what I had done, I looked up meekly.

"I'm sorry." we both said in the same moment.

"You shouldn't be sorry. What did you do?" Greg asked confused.

"I don't know... I just snapped at you." I turned red, embarrassed.

Greg looked at me as if I had three heads. "You had every right to snap at me, it doesn't require an apology. Don't be sorry." He said firmly. "The only person here who should be sorry for anything is me."

"Why?" I asked uneasily. I always got nervous when it came to having a serious conversation about something I didn't necessarily want to hear about. I didn't want to hear him say that he didn't really care about me. I didn't think I'd be able to hold in the emotions that were begging to flow free.

"I haven't been completely honest with you since we've met." He admitted, and I looked up at him, though part of my mind was telling me that if I met his eyes I might start to cry. "And I haven't treated you with the respect you deserve to be treated with." He looked out the window at the passing scenery for a moment before continuing. "I'm not sure how much of last night you remember-"

"Enough." I interrupted with my quiet commentary.

"When Matt said that I had told him that you were just for fun and that I was just playing, it was true. I did say that. But I've been thinking about it, and I realized you're not just a game to me. I like you. I can't honestly say that about a lot of people, but I mean it about you. There's something about you. You're so innocent, yet so mysterious...and I just want to take you and peel off every last one of your layers and reach your core. I want to see and know everything about you...and I wanted to teach you about me in the same way." He said taking a deep breath. "But I fucked it up. I shouldn't have made my first priority peeling off the layer of your clothes. I was thinking with the wrong head." He admitted.

I was staring at him as I took in every word he said. I noticed the purplish yellow bruise that had formed around his right eye from the blow to his face received from Matt. "I just hope that it's not too late to start things over..." he trailed off. "I hope I haven't lost you."

I was at a loss for words. No one had ever said anything remotely close to what he had said to me. I could tell he meant every last word he had spoken. The tears welled up in my eyes, though they were not the kind I had first imagined. They weren't exactly tears of joy, nor were they tears of sadness. They were tears of emotion. I wasn't sure what I felt, but whatever it was, it was a feeling of more force than I had ever felt.

"Why are you crying?" Greg asked confused. He lifted my chin up with his finger. "Don't cry." he said offering me a half smile.  
  
"I'm sorry." I bit my bottom lip to stop the tears.  
  
"Stop apologizing!!" Greg exclaimed. "I'm the only one allowed to make any apologies today."  
  
I let out a little laugh and looked into his eyes. He was being genuine, and I wanted to do something. I wanted to scream. I wanted to smile for five days straight. But instead I just flung myself at him and hugged him tightly. He welcomed the warm embrace and squeezed me back. I rested my head on his shoulder.   
  
When we finally separated I brought my hand to his black eye and touched it gently. He cringed. "It hurts?" I asked quietly.  
  
He nodded, "But I had that coming," he shrugged. "I'm surprised Matt hadn't done it sooner."  
  
At the mention of Matt's name I came flying back to reality and remembered what had taken place between us only two hours before. I froze. What the hell was I supposed to do. Would Greg be pissed? How hurt was Matt going to be? What was wrong with me? Deep down, somewhere inside, I knew that I owed more to Matt... but my heart was telling me to do the crazy thing instead, and part of me hated myself for that.  
  
"Why are you all tense?" Greg asked suddenly.  
  
I jumped. I knew that I wanted to be honest with Greg from the start, if I expected him to act the same way. "Can I tell you something?" I asked him.  
  
"You know you can tell me anything and everything." he smiled.  
  
"Me and Matt-" I began slowly but was interrupted.  
  
"I kind of figured with the lipstick..." he said looking down.  
  
"I'm sorry." I whispered.  
  
"Don't apologize." Greg said again, only more quietly, and I didn't know if he really meant it or not.  
  
"I was just confused...and he was there for me." I explained. "And..." I continued even though it was hard for me to confess to what I'd done. "I was the one who initiated it."  
  
Greg sighed, "It's going to take a little while for us to straighten things out." he admitted. "But we'll make it through."  
  
"Why are you so damn perfect?" I asked him, putting my head on his shoulder.  
  
"I'm not." he disagreed, but I saw the goofy smile planted on his face.  
  
****************************************  
We stayed in that position, sitting down with my head on his shoulder and his arm around my waist, for a long time in silence. I felt safe and comfortable. We felt the bus jerk to a stop and we had finally reached our destination-- a hotel in Ohio. I didn't want to get up. Partly because I wanted to stay in that position forever and partly because I was afraid to face Matt.   
  
I had gotten myself into a real mess. I didn't want to do anything to hurt Matt. He had been good to me. He was there for me when I needed someone, and I didn't want to let him down...but I knew I was, and I didn't want to have to look him in the eyes and see the pain I knew would be there. 

I had to face the fact that I liked him too. It was different from the way Greg made me feel. I wasn't so hypnotized, and I was in control of the situation. It was more fun...but with Greg... he made me feel things I had never felt before... and even though that scared me, it was amazing. I had to sort my emotions out, and I wasn't getting the opportunity to.

There was a knock on the door and Jesse popped his head in, "We're here." He told us and we got up and started getting our stuff. Greg started to walk out, "Are you coming Koree?" he asked me as he threw his duffel bag over his shoulder.

"I just need a minute," I said as I put my journal back into my bag. "You go on ahead." I told him. 

"You sure?" He asked quizzically.

"Yeah...I'll meet you inside." I said giving him a peck on the cheek. He smiled and then walked off the bus.

I noticed that everyone else aside from Jesse had already departed as well. I saw him looking at me like he wanted to say something, but every time he was about to he would shake his head and go back to putting his stuff together.

"What is it Jess!?" I asked finally, because he was driving me insane and making me nervous.

He jumped back surprised. "Oh...um..." he shrugged. "It's nothing."

I rolled my eyes. "Just tell me." I said with some annoyance in my voice.

"No... it's mean." he said and starting picking up his backpack.

"I'm pretty sure that hasn't stopped you before, according to your fans at least." I said with a sly little smile. "Seriously, just say it." I nearly begged.

"Alright, but don't get mad." Jesse said.

"I promise I won't." I said trying to get him to just spit it out.

"It's just that you've only been here for three days and you've already fucked up our chemistry." he said dropping his bag back down.

"What?" I asked taken aback.

"Things just aren't how they're supposed to be. Matt and Greg usually get along the BEST out of all of us, and now they won't even look at each other, and Chris, Frankie and I don't even know what the hell is going on, but you're trouble." he continued.

I didn't know what to say. I was trouble? I didn't even sign up for the stupid internship. I didn't ask to hook up with Greg. I didn't ask to get drunk. I didn't ask Matt to comfort me. I didn't do anything, and I wanted to scream that to Jesse. I wanted to scream it to the whole entire world, but instead I just started to cry. I tried to keep Jesse from seeing my tears, but it was impossible.

"I'm sorry," he said, "But you've just thrown things off." he kept going, even though he saw I was crying. He didn't seem to care. I wanted to get away, but I couldn't go into the hotel now. I didn't want to go near anyone... I wanted to run away, but Jesse was standing by the door, so instead I just got up and slipped into the back of the bus and into one of the beds.

"Don't face it, then." I heard Jesse saying to me. "But it's the truth, and I can only imagine what else you'll manage to screw up by the end of this summer." he was yelling now, but I didn't care. I just closed my eyes, and covered my ears with a pillow.


	7. Chapter 7

**TALKING THINGS OUT**

  
"Koree?" I heard someone call out into the bus. About ten minutes had passed since Jesse's verbal assault on me, but I was still feeling the effects, and the tears were still flowing. I didn't respond to the boy. I couldn't tell which one of the guys it was, but it really didn't matter. I wanted to stay away from all of them because, well, maybe Jesse was right. That was the part that scared me. 

"Koree... I know you're in here." The voice grew louder and I realized I knew who it belonged to. The person who I was the most scared to face. Not only because of what Jesse had said, but because of my own guilt. I stuffed my face into the pillow and pretended to be invisible.

"There you are!" Matt happily exclaimed.

I couldn't ignore him, as much as I wanted to, so I turned my head and forced a half smile. His expression changed from the cheerful one that had been there moments before to one of concern. He must have seen the moisture on the pillow and my tearstained cheeks and put two and two together. "Why were you crying?" he questioned with a soothing voice.

I couldn't bear to tell him the real reason. I couldn't repeat what Jesse had told me, it was too painful. So instead, I said nothing and began to silently cry again.

"What's wrong?" he asked me now, the look of worry in his eyes increasing.

"I want to go home." I whispered through my tears, and then buried my face in my hands. I felt like an idiot. I didn't want to let anyone see me cry. I never let anyone see me cry, and here I had let three (all of them boys, in addition) within in a matter of one hour. 

Matt sat down beside me and wrapped his arms around me hugging me close. "Shh..." he comforted.

After awhile my sobbing slowed down and eventually stopped completely. I looked up at Matt, who hadn't said a word the whole time. He just held on to me. "Thank you." I whispered.

"What for?" he asked, shifting positions slightly so he could see my face better.

"For being here." I said offering a small smile.

He smiled back and squeezed me tighter for a moment. Then he looked at me long and hard. "So, you guys worked things out?" he asked uneasily.

I broke my eye contact with him and looked down. "Me and Greg?" I asked and there was along pause. "Yeah..."

"Oh." his grip on me loosened slightly.

"What have I gotten myself into?" I asked out loud and the question echoed through the bus.

"Well right now you're in my arms." Matt half smiled, but then turned serious. "You just need to ask yourself, when it comes down to it, who's arms do you want to be in the rest of this summer." he began. "And all I know is that I could hold you forever." he continued.

"Why do you have to say things like that?" I sighed.

"Sorry..." he apologized.

"No." I said shaking my head. "Don't apologize for saying something as sweet as that." I took his hand into mine. "I just don't know what to do, where to start." I sighed again.

"What's your heart telling you to do?" he questioned me.

"You don't want to know..." I said with a coy smile playing on my lips.

"What?" he asked laughing, wondering what I was going to say.

"The word threesome comes to mind." I giggled.

"Whoa!" Matt laughed. "Not happening. _Ever_!" he squeezed my sides making me giggle harder.

When I finally had calmed down I looked at Matt, "I really like you both... but that's not fair to either of you."

Matt stroked my face, "I'd do anything to be with you." he said with desperation in his voice. "Even if you still want to be with Greg, I don't care," he went on, "We don't have to tell him..." he trailed off.

I bit my bottom lip and looked into his eyes, and did something that I knew I wouldn't regret. I pulled him in for a long, hard kiss.

****************************************  
  
I continued to hungrily kiss Matt and he returned the kiss with equal aggression. I was really getting into it and guided Matt's hand under my shirt. Just as he was slipping it up we heard someone struggling with the bus door. We separated quickly just as Greg entered the bus. He looked at Matt with an icy stare for just a moment before looking at me and smiling, "What are you still doing on here?" he asked sweetly, but I sensed the skepticism in his voice.

I ignored the way the question had come out and answered casually, "Sorry, I was just thinking about some things..." I zipped up my bag which still hadn't finished getting together, after being interrupted by Jesse.

"With Matt?" he asked trying to keep his composure.

"Yeah, well he just came out to find out where I was." I explained.

"Did you really?" Greg addressed his question to Matt this time. There was so much tension between them, I had to do something to bring the conversation to a halt.

"And look!" I announced. "I've been found!" I moved directly in front of Greg and kissed him on the cheek. "I missed you." I whispered and pecked him again this time on his lips. "So, what's on the agenda for today?" I asked coyly as I played with the buckle of his belt.

"Sound check isn't until five-thirty. Aside from that and a meeting at three, we have the whole day to do whatever we want."

"Oh really? Whatever we want?" I asked continuing to tease him by playing with his belt buckle and jeans zipper. I could feel him becoming hard and I smiled to myself, but I know Matt took notice.

"Yeah..." Greg said, his eyes starting to glaze over.

"Let's go to a movie!" I said excitedly, moving my hands from Greg's jeans.

"A movie?" Greg asked sounding disappointed.

"Yup!" I smiled sweetly.

"You're a tease, you know that?" he shook his head at me. 

I giggled and twirled a piece of hair around my finger. "Don't you listen to your own songs?" I asked with a silly smile.

"Which song?" Greg asked confused.

"All good things will come to those who wait..." I repeated the lyrics I remembered from the song "Matter of Time." As I said this, Matt stood up and trudged off the bus.

"What the hell was up with him?" Greg asked with a disgusted expression.

"What do you mean?" I asked, even though I knew exactly what was going on with Matt.

"I don't think he's going to get over you." he shook his head. "Nope..." he continued, "But he's going to have to, because you're my baby." he said kissing forehead gently as he wrapped his arms around me from behind, hugging me close.

"It'll just take him some time." I told Greg leaning my head back onto his shoulder.

"Hopefully not too much." he put in, before starting to kiss my neck.

'If he only knew...' I thought to myself, as I closed my eyes and delighted in the feelings Greg's kisses were giving me.

****************************************

"Why couldn't we just go to a moviiiiiie?" I asked as I nearly rollerbladed into a little boy.

"Nothing good was playing." Frankie laughed at me as I fell flat on my butt.

"Kor, I can't believe you don't know how to rollerblade." Greg laughed too as he pulled me up. "Here, hold my hand. I'll help you." he said as he began to guide me around the roller rink.

"Slow down!!" I cried out as he began to speed up, me barely trailing behind.

"Come on, Kor, tough it up! I'm going slow." he complained.

"You suck!" I said letting go of his hand to give him a light slap on the back. As I let go, I lost control of myself again, spinning right into Jesse, nearly making lose his balance and fall.

"Maybe you should watch where you're going." he said to me with a certain edginess to his voice.

I swallowed hard, not wanting to let him get to me. Greg made his way over and saw both of our expressions. "Um, you guys OK?" he asked, coming over and slipping his arm around my waist.

"Yeah, just tell your dirty little girlfriend to stay out of my face." Jesse growled in our direction before skating off with immense speed.

"What a dick. What was that all about?" Greg asked as he gently rubbed the small of my back.

"Who knows..." I said pretending to just shrug it off...but he was really beginning to get to me. Every time what he had said was about to slip from my memory, he did something to throw it back in my face.

"He really had no right to speak about you that way. I'll be right back, I want to give him a a piece of my mind." Greg suddenly decided after thinking about Jesse's remark.

"No!" I said with a bit of desperation in my voice, but Greg ignored it and skated off in the direction Jesse had flown before. I tried to go after him, but my rollerblading skills failed on me and I fell after skating only about three feet.

I wanted to break down again. I knew if Greg confronted him, it would only make the entire situation worse. I was sitting (from my fall) in the middle of the rink on the verge of tears, watching everyone zoom by. I ignored the hollers I was receiving from angry people, nearly tripping over me, and just stayed there, frozen. Suddenly the lights were dimmed and the music slowed. I barely noticed there were much fewer skaters surrounding me, until I felt a tap on my shoulder, and was thrown back into reality.

I turned around to see Matt looking at me innocently. "Couples..." he said shrugging offering me his hand.

I wanted to take it. A part of me was telling me to, but I knew it wouldn't be the best idea, "It's too risky." I shook my head. "Greg might see... everyone else will." I sighed.

"Who cares if they see!?" He asked, almost angrily.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. "Matt," I said solemnly, "Don't be like that..."

"I'm sorry." Matt shook his head, realizing how he had acted. "It's just frustrating. I like you so much, and I want to show you to the whole world."

I pulled him in for a hug. "For now... just show me." I smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

Chris came rollerblading out of nowhere and raised his eyebrows at us, "What's going on here?" he asked slyly.

We broke from our hug, and I saw Matt looked uneasy so I spoke up, "Matt was having some girl troubles. I was just helping him out." I explained.

"Well, maybe you might want to do it somewhere aside from the middle of the rink. Just a suggestion." Chris laughed as he saw me realize I was still sitting there on my butt.

Just then, Greg came back to us. "Koree, come here." He said taking my hand and skating with me off the rink, over to some benches. I looked at him quizzically, wondering what Jesse had said to him.

"Why didn't you tell me about your confrontation with Jesse on the bus?" He asked with concern in his voice.

"I didn't want to make anything more out of it then there was...and well, maybe what he said was true." I began. "I can't begin to put into words how sorry I am for putting all this tension on your group. I don't want to be the force behind any problems you guys have...maybe I should go home..."

At that point in the conversation Greg took his pointer finger and pressed it against the middle of my lips, "Stop." he whispered. "Don't ever say that again." he told me seriously. "I just put Jesse in his place. You're not causing any tension that wasn't already there. Trust me." he moved his finger from my mouth and leaned in and softly kissed my lips.

I wanted to believe him, but I didn't. He didn't see the fire in Jesse's eyes as they burned into me, even right then at that moment I felt his eyes drilling holes into me as Greg kissed me. I tried to ignore him as Greg gave me nibbly little kisses causing a silly little giggle to emit from my mouth. Just then I heard the ring of Greg's cell phone, which he had decide to ignore.

I laughed slightly as he continued to kiss me. "Greg," I moved away, "answer your phone."

"Uh-uh." He shook his head and pulled me back close. I kissed his lips hard but the loud ring of his phone was getting to me, so I pulled back again.

"No more playing until you get it." I said crossing my arms across my chest.

"Fine." he huffed, pulling his cell from his pants pocket. "Hello?" he asked sounding irritated.

"Now?" he asked with his annoyance clearly present in his voice. "Everyone except Frankie?" he asked clarifying and then hung up.

I looked at him questionably as he began to get up, "You shouldn't have told me to answer it!" he shook his head. "Now, me, Jesse, Chris and Matt have to go back to the hotel and meet with Claudia to learn some new back up moves for Dream On."

I pouted. "I'm sowwy." I said in the voice of a toddler. "What about Frankie?" I asked realizing that he hadn't said his name.

"Yeah, he doesn't have to come, because his choreography is staying the same." Greg explained. "So, if you want to hang around here a little longer, I'll see if he wants to stay too." Greg suggested.

"Alright, sounds like a plan." I grinned. "When do you think you'll be done with the dancing?" I asked.

"It's two now?" Greg asked checking his watch. "Well, we have a meeting at three, and then sound check is at five thirty..." he trailed off. "Probably have to work on it before and after the meeting."

I frowned. "I wanted some time alone with you." I sighed.

"There's always after the concert." Greg said, his eyes lighting up.

I simply raised my eyebrows. "We'll see."

****************************************

Once Matt, Jesse and Chris had been rounded up by Greg, I attempted to get up and skate around the rink to think. I had finally gotten the hang of it and kept skating around in circles thinking about everything that had gone down the last 24 hours or so. The week before, I could never have imagined myself with these type of predicaments.

I was still skating thinking about Greg and Matt and Greg again, and before I knew what was happening, I had skated directly into the wall and fell backwards. I heard laughter from some of the other skaters around me as I rubbed my forehead where I had made contact with the wall.

I felt someone skate over, and looked up to see Frankie. He began pulling me up but I fell back down dizzily. I closed my eyes to regain a grasp on what I was doing and then let Frankie guide me up. "Come on, let's go sit down for a minute." he said, and we skated out of the rink over to a bench.

We sat down on opposite ends of the bench and faced each other. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Huh?" I played dumb. "What do you mean?"

Frankie rolled his eyes. "Come on." he urged me. "I'm not stupid. I saw the way you were just aimlessly skating in circles... what's on your mind?"

I sighed and looked down, not saying anything.

After a few moments he spoke up. "They both really like you." he seemed to read my mind.

"I know..." I sighed again.

"Talk to me." Frankie almost begged me. "You can trust me... if you talk to me I'm not going to repeat anything to any of the other guys." he reassured the fear he knew I had.

"I don't know." I finally gave in. "I feel like such a horrible person."

"Why?" Frankie looked at me confused.

"Because _I_ really like _both of them_." I said reversing what he had said to me before about how they felt about me

"Does Greg know that?" he asked me.

"I think he suspects it, but he hasn't said anything to me." I shrugged my shoulders. "Matt knows though..." I trailed off.

"Can I be completely honest with you?" Frankie asked me.

"Yes." I agreed although I was worried he would say something along the lines of what Jesse had to me.

"In the end, all three of you are going to get hurt." he informed me.

I waited before answering, thinking about what he had said. "I know." I confessed. "But, I'm hurting right now." I admitted. "I've never had anything like this happen to me before. Guys don't usually like me..." I told him. "And having two like me at once...and me liking them both in return." I sighed. "I just have no clue what I should do."

"What you should do is up to you." Frankie told me patting me on the back. "But whenever you need someone to talk to, I'm always here." he smiled. "Sometimes it helps to know there is someone there who will just listen, and it helps to get things off your mind."

"You're right, it does." I smiled back, and hugged him. "Thanks. You're a good kid." I laughed, considering he was older than me.


	8. Chapter 8

**TEARS TO CHEERS**

  
Frankie and I arrived back at the hotel just in time for their interview with Teen People magazine. I was allowed to sit in because I was part of the Dream Street "staff."

The interview was in the hotel's conference room, and the guys casually sat at the table chatting with the interviewer. She asked many of the overused questions such as "How did you guys meet?" and "What's the best thing about being in Dream Street?" But, when she asked, "So, what about girlfriends?" my ears perked up.

Chris started answering, "We're all single, and we'll probably stay that way for awhile. It's so hard to have a girlfriend when we're on the road all the time." he explained.

"Right. Since we're always on the move it's nearly impossible to keep up a good relationship. If you like a girl that much, you don't want to put her through never seeing you." Matt continued.

"We meet some pretty amazing people on tour, but the only people we see on a regular basis are members of our staff and since all but one are over the age of 30, well that'd just be weird." Greg laughed, "But, who knows, maybe my perfect match will be in the audience at one of our concerts, and I'll look out into the crowd and our eyes will meet and I'll know she's the one." he shrugged. "But for now, you can tell all the girls that I'm single and loving it!" He said kicking back in his seat.

His words made me feel uncomfortable. I wondered if he really thought that as he performed... I mean, I knew he probably checked out some of the girls in the audience, but I wondered if he saw them to be possibly more than screaming fans. The idea hadn't even crossed my mind until he had said that. And, then, I knew he had no choice but to say he was single... and in a sense, I guess he was. I suddenly realized, yeah we told each other we liked each other, whoop de doo... maybe he was telling other girls the same thing. We never said we were exclusive...

I was pulled from my thoughts when I felt hands over my eyes. "Guess who." I heard the familiar voice coming from behind me.

"Hmm, who could it be?" I pretended.

Greg twirled me around to face him. "What were you just daydreaming about?" he asked lightly squeezing my side, forcing me to giggle.

"Oh, nothing." I teased him.

"I bet I know." He smirked.

"Oh yeah?" I asked going along with him.

"You were thinking about me." He explained. I just nodded rolling my eyes as he continued. "And you were daydreaming about one of these." he said before kissing me deeply.

I kissed him back, chasing his tongue around our mouths. But I heard someone coughing, trying to get our attention and my eyes sort of bugged out, as I realized we were in a room with all other people, including Greg's mother! With this realization, I placed my hand on his chest and sort of eased him off of me. I could feel my cheeks turning hot, and could only imagine how red they had become, as Jesse and Chris snickered at our display of affection. The parents were all looking at us sternly, and I wanted to curl up into a ball and roll far away. I didn't want Maryann or any of the other parents to think I was the kind of girl they must have begun to think I was.

Lou entered the room and with a booming voice managed to take the tension away, "Boys, sound check time has been changed. We have a half hour to get there. Most of what you need should be in the bus, but check your rooms to make sure, and then meet outside at the buses in 10 minutes."

Everyone started filing out of the room and as Greg and I were departing his mother called to him, "Greg, can I have a word with you?"

Greg made a face, and then turned to me and said, "I'll just be a minute, you can wait here if you want."

I shrugged my shoulders, "It's ok, I'll go outside, by the bus. Maybe take a little walk. I want some fresh air." I smiled, and pecked him on the cheek, before briskly walking to the door and out into the breezy, 80 degree day.

****************************************

I had walked around the hotel about two times, just feeling the wind pushing against me. It was quite a refreshing feeling. When I turned the corner to start my third time around, I saw Matt sitting on a bench, under a overhang right in front of the hotel. He was sitting on one side and a duffel bag was taking up the other half. He looked as though he was deep in thought over something.

"Mind if I sit?" I asked meekly. I almost didn't want to shake him from his thoughts, but yeah, I did it anyhow.

He simply shrugged his shoulders and pulled his duffel off the bench and to his feet.

We sat there awkwardly for a couple of minutes, both in silence. Finally I could no longer take the quiet and spoke up. "A penny for your thoughts." I said swiftly pulling a penny from the change in my pocket.

He laughed, but then shook his head. "I don't need your penny, I'll do it for free." He sighed. "This conversation was going to have to come about soon anyhow."

I looked at him confused, "What do you mean?"

He was looking down at the pavement as he began to speak, "It's only been one day. Not even...and..." he looked up at me, "I already can't stand the way this whole thing is making me feel." I was about to respond, but he wasn't done. "I'm used to laughing. I'm used to getting along with all the guys... especially Greg. He's probably the one in the group that I've been the closest to... and this is all just ripping everything I had apart." he finally spit out.

I didn't know what to say. I wanted to cry again. But I bit my bottom lip and swallowed the tears. "I'm sorry." was all I could think to say.

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault. It's mine. I know that much... please don't think it's your fault." he said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Well how can I not think that? If I hadn't entered your world, none of this would have happened." I said, feeling horrible for the second time that day.

"If it wasn't you, and it wasn't now, it would have been someone else, somewhere along the line. It's OK... but, the most painful part is being with you and knowing you're with him too, and he comes first. I can't let this continue. I don't want to keep something like that from Greg, and if I'm with someone in the first place I have to keep it from so many people, the fans, the press... I don't want to have to keep it from my best friends." he explained.

Thousands of thoughts were swimming around my mind. I liked him, a lot. As selfish as it was, I did not want to let him go. "But..." I sputtered out, but Matt interjected.

"But nothing. No buts about it... this is how it has to be. Don't make me regret this. I want to walk away knowing that I did the right thing." He said, jumping up and grabbing his duffel. As he boarded the bus, I wanted to get up and follow him... but I couldn't make myself get up and do it. It just didn't feel right. So instead I sat there, staring at the tour bus door for a few moments, before putting my head in my hands.

A minute or so passed before I felt the weight of someone else sit beside me on the bench. Greg put his arm around my hunched over shoulders and stroked my back for a few seconds. "What's the matter?" he asked sounding both confused and concerned.

"It's nothing..." I said sitting up and shrugging my shoulders.  
  
"It doesn't look like nothing." Greg responded, and then paused before continuing. "You almost seem like a completely different person from the one I met two days ago." he thought for a moment and then went on. "You seemed like you had such higher spirits, and you were smiley and happy the past two days."  
  
"Two days!" I started laughing hysterically and I couldn't stop.  
  
"What's so funny?" Greg asked, completely confused.  
  
"Don't you get it?" I asked, still laughing. "We met two days ago. You don't know me! You've known me only slightly over 48 hours... but it's weird, I think I already am a 'completely different person'." I said, still laughing. It was like I'd been hit with a cloud of laughing gas. I couldn't stop.  
  
"Stop laughing." he said very seriously with a hurt expression on his face.  
  
"It's the truth. You don't know anything about me!" I was still laughing.  
  
"Stop it. Please." Greg was almost pleading with me. I could see I was hurting him, but I couldn't stop myself from continuing.  
  
"You don't know me and you probably never will. Ha! No one knows me." I was still laughing, but suddenly my laughs turned to tears and I broke down. I felt weak and fell into Greg's arms.  
  
"Koree...baby...what's wrong... talk to me... please." He whispered as he held me. He wanted to help, I could see it in his eyes when I looked up. But I didn't want to talk, so I put my head back down, and breathed deeply  
until my tears stopped. We stayed like that for awhile...Greg just holding me in my silence... I don't know how long we stayed like that, but I heard voices soon, and knew it was time to go, but I made no attempt to get up.  
  
"Is she OK?" I heard Lisa, Frankie's mom ask Greg.  
  
"I think something she ate at lunch didn't mix well... she's just feeling kind of nauseous. She'll be alright though. Don't worry." Greg said keeping the truth from her.  
  
"Alright, we'll leave it up to you Dr. Raposo!" she laughed and boarded the bus.  
  
"Come on Koree..." Greg said pulling me up to stand beside him, and walk onto the bus. "We're going to talk about this later." he said quietly before we got on.

****************************************  
"Ooh, it's magic when we meet, baby down on Dream Street." Jesse finished off their last song for sound check. I had hung around inside the bus, jotting my feelings down into my notebook for a little while until wandering into the night club (where the concert was being held)'s backstage door. Claudia had found me sitting on a sofa, and told me I could go out and watch the sound check. 

I sat watching on a stool beside the bar and sipped on a glass of water. I had calmed down from before, but was still feeling a little uneasy around the boys. As I watched them perform, I was experiencing a lot of mixed feelings. I tried not to look at Matt. Though I was still upset I realized what he had done was the right thing. Who was I kidding before that? I mean, I never had one boyfriend, let alone two at once! I just prayed to myself that the one I had was the right one.

Just then I felt arms wrap around my waist from behind and a head rest on top of my shoulders. I smiled as I tilted my head to see Greg there. I turned around on the stool so I was facing him and he kept his arms around around me. I raised my body slightly so I could a lay a tiny kiss on his nose. I giggled when he proceeded to Eskimo kiss me.

"You OK now?" he asked raising his eyebrow.

"Yeah... I'll be fine." I promised, and I was being honest. I put my arms around him and held him tightly.

Just then, Maryann walked passed us and cleared her throat. Greg groaned and slowly loosened his grasp on me and separated. It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. I giggled, "So what did mommy have to say to you before?" I asked.

Greg shook his head and poked me in my tummy. "Just that I can't be too physical with you in front of her and other people." he sort of mumbled.

I laughed. "Aw, Greggy poo," I joked, "No more kisses for you! Mommy said so!"

Greg put on a sexy expression before coming back by saying, "Mommy," he put an exageration on the word, "doesn't have to know what goes on when she can't see us!" he winked and then took my hand and pulled me off the stool towards the dressing rooms.

****************************************

"So, what do you want to do now?" I teased Greg.

We were in the dressing room and I was sitting on a large counter top, with a large mirror with lights all around it behind me, swinging my legs like a little kid. Greg was just checking out the array of food that had been set up for him and the rest of the band for later, along with the rest of the days schedule. "No one is due to come back here for another 20 minutes." he informed me.

"Twenty minutes, huh?" I ran my tongue along my upper lip seductively. "What should we do?" I asked, still swinging my legs back and forth.

"I have an idea." Greg said locking the door and coming over and grabbing my legs with his hands to stop me from swinging them. Neither one of us had to say anything. We both knew what we wanted.

He flicked his tongue out and licked my ear, causing me to let out a tiny moan. "You like that?" he asked in a raspy whisper.

I didn't answer with words. Instead I brought my mouth to his and kissed him aggressively. I shot out my tongue and pressed it against his lips. I didn't have to do it for long before he welcomed it into his mouth. Our tongues swirled around one another and I wanted him...bad.

As we kissed I allowed my hand to slip under the white wife beater he was sporting. I felt his abs for awhile and then continued up his chest to his pecs. His body was firm and I could have stayed like that forever. When my hand ran over his right nipple I noticed his eyes light up, so I returned my hand to it and played with it, making circles on it with my pointer finger. I felt it become hard under my touch and then switched to the other.

He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the manipulation of his nipples and he began to tug on my shirt. I broke away from our kiss for a brief moment and removed my hand from under his shirt, to lift my own tank top over my head. It left me with a modest white, slightly lacy bra on top and denim cutoffs on the bottom.

"You look so sexy like this." Greg commented before beginning to drop tiny kisses along my collarbone. I place my hands back on his chest and urged him to take his shirt off as well. He rapidly pulled it off and then returned to laying the kisses on my neck and shoulders. I closed my eyes and relished the feelings he was beginning to churn inside of me. I was beginning to breathe slightly heavily and my mouth was turning dry as Greg continued his kisses down my body, following my left bra strap to where the cup began. He lifted up his head and looked at me with questioning me with his eyes. I nodded my head, signaling him it was OK, and his hands came behind my back and fumbled for a moment with my bra clasp before I felt the support it was giving me loosen. Greg pulled the cups away from my now perspiring skin and smiled at what was in front of him.

It was his first really good look, not in the dark and not after having drunk, that he had at the top half of my body. From the expression on his face, he liked what he saw. He reached out and cupped each one in one of his hands. His touch was exciting me, so I tried to kiss him. But Greg had other ideas and after returning my kiss briefly he broke away and planted his lips on my left breast. His hand was still cupping it as he licked around the nipple teasing me. Then, without warning he flicked his tongue over it, sending a rush through my body. He continued like this for awhile and then began to suck on it. He was driving me crazy, and I could tell it was turning him on as well because I felt his erect member through his jeans, pressing against my leg, which sent me chills itself. I wanted to touch it.

I was debating whether or not to make that move when we heard someone fiddling with the door knob.

"Fuck." Greg whispered, releasing my nipple from his mouth.

"Shit, shit, shit." I said, scrambling to find my shirt.

There was a banging on the door. "Is anyone in here?" we heard Frankie ask followed by another bang on the door.

"Uh, yeah, just a second!" Greg called out just as he found my shirt. He tossed it over to me and I quickly slipped it over my head. After making sure I was covered, Greg unlocked the door and opened it. I hopped back onto the counter top.

"What the hell were you doing in here?" I heard Frankie ask, as he walked in, with Chris and Jesse in tow.

Chris took one look at me and busted out laughing. "I wonder." Chris laughed, and gestured towards me answering Frankie's question.

I looked down at my shirt and realized it was inside out and backwards. I let out a meek smile.

"Huh?" Greg played dumb. "Kor was just helping me choose my stage outfit for today."

"Hey Greg," Jesse sang out in a sing-song voice. "So is this the bra you were considering wearing for tonight's show?" he taunted, dangling my white lacy bra, which I hadn't had the time to put back on, from his index finger.

"Shut up." Greg said rolling his eyes taking the bra from Jesse.

"Whatever." he laughed and Chris joined in still eyeing my inside out shirt.

Just then Matt entered. He didn't seem to notice my state of dress, but then again he barely looked at me. "We have to get dressed and ready for hair." he interrupted Chris and Jesse's laughter.

"I'll go wait outside." I said jumping off the counter top. "Tell me when you guys are all changed and stuff."

"Why are you leaving?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, don't you want to write and article about if we wear boxers or briefs for the magazine?" Frankie joked.

"No, seriously, we don't care if you're in here while we're changing..." Chris trailed off.

"I care!" Greg interjected. "Don't look at the other guys." he warned me, half joking, half serious.

"I'll cover my eyes." I giggled placing my hand over my eyes. "Tell me when you're all done."

I heard lots of bustling around me as the boys got dressed. As they spoke about what dance move they had to try not to mess up, I couldn't help but want to take a peek. I tried to fight the urge, but I was having a lot of trouble. I couldn't help myself, and I allowed two of my fingers to separate, and I peeked out. Chris was standing right in my view and I admired his boxer clad body. When I lifted my gaze to his face, I realized he was looking right at me and noticed I was checking him out. I quickly recovered my eyes completely, but not before he gave me a little wink.

A few moments later Greg came over to me and removed my hands from my eyes. "All done." he smiled.

"Yup, all done." Chris echoed him, smirking at me slightly. I just tried to avoid his gaze, although a tiny smile was playing on my lips.

I was feeling a lot better than I had a few hours before, and I figured my biggest problem, the whole Matt and Greg situation, was coming to an end. I was just worried a new one was about to arise.


	9. Chapter 9

**DON'T YOU DARE**

The guys were all behind the curtain, in position, ready to begin the show. Brian had led me to the side of the stage and told me I could watch the concert from there. Just as the curtain was rising, and the music was starting Greg saw me and gave me a little wave, before turning forward again and beginning the dance moves for "Let's Get Funky."

I hadn't been paying much attention during the sound check and they hadn't been as into it anyhow, so I was really taken aback by their performance. It was my first time seeing them in action and I was in awe. Their dancing was electric and their voices were incredible. I couldn't help but notice how flawless Chris was in his dancing. But when he glanced to the side and saw me looking in his direction I quickly averted my gaze to Greg.

Soon I was feeling very jealous of all the girls in the audience. Greg had such excellent stage presence and every time he stared into the eyes of a female fan, or directed a pelvic thrust in their direction, I wanted to reach out and strangle the girl. I didn't think it could get worse until the middle of "Jennifer Goodbye" when I saw Greg pull a skinny, perky, cute blond from the audience and began to sing to her.

He began to dance with her as he sang, and I noticed her hand creep down and grab his ass and begin to knead it. I also noticed Greg's reaction in his pants, as well as the grin spreading across his face. I was so ready to run onto the stage and push her off the edge, but I knew there was nothing I could do. He kissed her hand before sending her back to her seat in the front row, and she coyly smiled back at him.

From that moment on, I wanted the concert to come to an end. I was counting the minutes until their set would be complete. Finally, the ran off stage, guzzled some water, heading back out for "It Happens Every Time" and were all done.

****************************************

When they came off stage they all took another long drink and caught their breaths. Greg came over to me, "So, what did you think?" he asked smiling.

"You're amazing." I said simply and smiled. I decided I wasn't going to make a big deal out of what had gone on. It was his job. I had to teach myself to accept that.

"Nah." he disagreed.

"You look very convincing on stage. No wonder all those girls love you." I began to bring up the topic, trying not to sound too jealous.

"Yeah, I guess. I just try to make them feel special for that moment, you know?" he explained shrugging his shoulders.

"Yup, yup." I nodded. "So, do you always bring a girl on stage?" I inquired.

"Yeah, it's part of my choreography for Jennifer Goodbye." he informed me matter of factly.

"Do they always grab your ass like that?" I couldn't resist asking the question.

Greg turned red, obviously not realizing I had noticed what had happened. "No, not really." he mumbled.

I just raised my eyebrows and let it be over (so I thought). I just wanted him to make him aware of the fact that I saw what had happened and I was watching.

"Boys, hurry up." Lou said gathering them and herding them back towards the dressing room. "There are a few people with meet and greets who I want to get done with quickly." he explained.

"Then you'll bring back the girls I pointed out?" Jesse asked him excitedly.

"Yeah, yeah. Just hurry up." Lou exclaimed before running off to take care of some business.

I looked at Jesse quizzically. He noticed my questioning look and explained, "After every show we usually have him bring back a few hotties."

"I see..." I said nodding my head. "And what do you do once they get backstage?"

Jesse just shrugged his shoulders and smirked. I looked at Greg, but he avoided eye contact with me.

****************************************

"Bye! It was great meeting you." Matt said to three little girls clad in "We LOVE Dream Street" t-shirts, as he closed the door behind them.

A few moments Lou knocked and then opened the door. "Alright, the meet and greets are all done. I'm going to send the girls you requested here in a minute." he said before closing the door behind himself.

"Koree...come here." Greg called me over. I had been sitting on the opposite side of the room while the fans were there, taking notes, and asking the fans a couple of questions so I could write an article about meet and greets. I wasn't supposed to be near Greg too often in front of fans anyhow.

"Can we stop pretending now?" I asked hopefully.

Greg nodded. "Come here." he whined, because I had yet to budge from my current spot.

"I'm coming, you big baby!" I laughed, getting up. I walked over to the chair he was sitting in and fell into his welcoming lap. I sat sideways on him, with my legs dangling on the side and my arms wrapped around his neck. "Is this better?" I asked giving him a tiny kiss on his nose.

"Much." he answered before grabbing my waist and pulling me in for a real kiss. He discretely slipped his hand up the front of my shirt and I moaned into his mouth when he tweaked one of my nipples. It seemed to amuse him quite a bit, and he proceeded to do it again, this time to the other. I forgot the other boys were around and I was just slipping my hand under Greg's shirt when we heard the creak of the door opening. Greg pulled away from the kiss, and removed his hand from under mine. I reluctantly removed my hand from his abs, but remained in my position on his lap as the three girls entered.

Immediately I was jealous, and taken aback. All three girls were very pretty, and I felt inferior to them, always having had low self esteem. But the thing that took me back the most, was that one of them was the girl Greg had taken up on stage. The other two were equally as pretty, one with straight blond hair down to the middle of her back, and the other with curly blond locks that went slightly past her shoulders. All three wore revealing outfits and presented themselves confident of their beauty.

No one was saying anything until Chris broke the silence. "Hey." he said giving them an upwards nod. "I'm Chris."

"We know." The curly haired blond giggled.

"I'm Heather." the girl who Greg had brought up introduced herself. "This is Amay," she said pointing to the brunette, "and this is Melanie." she said pointing to the curly blond. "There's no need to introduce _your_ selves...we already know your names." she winked sending it in Greg's direction. It was then that she took notice of me sitting on his lap. She also noticed my icy glare which had landed on her.

"Who are you?" she said flatly.

"This is my..." Greg began but trailed off as he saw Heather flick her tongue out of her mouth and run it along her teeth seductively. "This is Koree." he finally said.

I frowned at his lack to call me his girlfriend, or whatever it was that he was about to refer to me as. I decided I had to show this girl that he was mine and she better back off. "Greg," I pouted. "Can we start where we left off?"

When he didn't answer, I took it as a yes, and tilted my head to the side, and kissed him roughly. He kissed back, but I could tell he wasn't as into it as he had been moments before. I pulled away and sighed, though it came out as more of a huff. He just looked at me with a "what did I do?" expression. I rolled my eyes and hopped off of his lap. I did not like the presence of these girls in the room. Not one bit.

Frankie noticed how uncomfortable I was feeling after taking one look at me. "Koree, you know that CD you wanted to hear? I think I left it on the bus... want to come help me find it." he asked.

I nodded quietly, thankful for his gesture. "We'll be right back." I excused the two of us, and as soon as we had slipped out the back door and it was closed securely behind us, I turned to Frankie and hissed, "I don't like those girls, and I don't like how the one is eyeing Greg."

We started walking towards the bus and Frankie agreed, "Yeah...I'm not too into them inviting girls back every show. It usually results in at least one of the guys hooking up with some random girl who he probably won't see, or even think about after it."

"Are you serious?" I asked, feeling disgusted.

"Yeah...and I'm just not like that." he said looking down.

"That's a good thing." I said lifting his chin up. "Don't you ever even think about stooping down to that level. That's not how a girl should be treated... even if she'll let it happen." I sighed with sudden realization. "All the girls here... they're so devoted and so in love with the image of who they think each of you are, that they're willing to give themselves to you. Those three girls backstage right now probably think they're really something... but they're not. They probably won't even be a memory to any of you."

"I think you're starting to catch on." Frankie nodded.

We were just approaching the buses, and we took one step, and were no longer next to the building anymore. All of a sudden we heard the loud screech of girls screaming. We looked directly in front of us and there were about 100 fans standing behind a fence. "FRANKIE!!!!!!!" we heard them screaming and I looked at Frankie and laughed.

"Oh, Frankie. I love you! Can I have your autograph!?" I teased him.

"Very funny." He commented, and then waved to all the girls, causing the volume of their screams to raise a level.

"OK, my ears are starting to hurt, can we get on the bus?" I asked pulling him along with me.

He pulled out a key and we quickly boarded the bus. I sat down on one of the top bunks. "So...uh..." I started to form the question that had been floating around my mind for the last few minutes. "Does Greg do that too?" I asked hesitantly, fearful of the answer I was almost positive I'd be hearing. Frankie didn't respond, so I clarified my question. "Hook up with random girls after every concert, I mean..."

Frankie was silent. He was looking down and fiddling with the keys in his hand. I took my hand and put it over his to stop him from fiddling with the keys. "Please, Frank..." I urged him, now almost positive of the word that would be emitted from his mouth.

He looked up and into my eyes. "Honestly?" he asked, and I nodded. "Yeah." he finally allowed the word I'd been dreading to escape from his lips. "But, I think with you around he'll change his habit." He quickly put in.

I was beginning to feel nauseous , and just nodded. "I _really_ hope so." I prayed. "I know I haven't been the best towards him..." I began. "I mean, in one day I was already messing around with one of his best friends. But that's over." I assured Frankie. "Matt put it to an end, and I'm so glad he did. I mean, I was upset about it before, because I did like him. I really did. But thinking about it now... that was not who I am. I am not a sneaky person. I'm not a slut. I couldn't handle all the stress it was causing me, and I learned my lesson." I promised. "And now, when it's the other way around, and I'm the one threatened by the fact that he might want to be with another girl... I hate it." I finished off my trail of thoughts.

Frankie looked at me for a few moments. "You're a good person." he finally concluded. "I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that Greg is true to you." he vowed.

I smiled at him genuinely. "Thank you." I said and pulled him in for a hug. "I'm going to devote my summer to finding you a girl who is just as sweet as you are." I offered.

He just laughed. "Who knows... maybe I already have."

I looked at him with a puzzled look on my face. "What do you mean?"

"Don't worry about it." He said quickly and started to walk off the bus. "Let's get back in there, so at least if anything happens we know about it." he suggested.

I agreed, "Yeah...I don't trust that girl around Greg. Let's go before they cause too much damage."

****************************************

When Frankie and I got back to the room, everyone was settling down in a circle. "You're just in time." Jesse told us as we entered.

"For?" Frankie asked.

"Truth or dare!" Amay announced as Jesse slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her beside him. She looked at her friends excitedly and then snuggled close to him.

I wasn't exactly up for a game of truth or dare but I really had no choice in the matter. I followed the circle with my eyes until they landed on Greg who was sitting in a chair beside a flirtatious Heather. Matt, who was sitting on the on the floor on the other side of Greg, moved over so that I could sit beside him. Greg didn't even noticed I had returned, and was playfully teasing Heather. He wiped an eyelash from her face, and it looked as though they were about to kiss. I wanted to cry, but I composed myself. Their faces moved closer together, and I couldn't believe what Greg was doing...right in front of me no less! I suddenly heard someone clear their throat and say loudly, "Chris, truth or dare?" I realized it was Frankie coming to my rescue for the second time in ten minutes.

Greg quickly came to, and separated from his near lip lock with Heather. He looked at me and I turned my head. I couldn't tell what his look was trying to say... whether it was an 'oh shit I messed up' kind of look, or 'sorry' kind of look, or 'God I wish I was with Heather and not you' kind of look. Either way, I just couldn't look him in the eyes.

"Dare." Chris decided.

"Alright..." Frankie said thinking for a moment. "I dare you to..." he laughed. "Go give Jesse a nice little kiss on the lips."

Both Chris and Jesse's eyes bugged out. "No way man!" Jesse got up protesting.

"A dare is a dare..." Frankie laughed.

"I'm gonna kill you Frank." Chris threatened. "But you're right, a dare is a dare." He got up and walked towards Jesse.

"You're not fucking serious, are you?" Jesse asked.

Everyone was laughing by now and chanting, "Do it! Do it!"

Then quickly Chris gave Jesse a tiny peck on the lips. Jesse wiped his mouth. "Gross Chris, you got some of your lip gloss on me!"

We were all on the floor laughing by that point and it took a few minutes for us to settle down. "Matt, truth or dare?" Chris finally asked.

"Truth." he said simply.

"So boring." Greg noted.

"Alright," Chris asked his question. "If you could hook up with one of the four girls in this room, who would it be?"

He thought for a moment, and looked at me long and hard. But when he opened his mouth to answer, he didn't say Koree. "Probably Melanie." he answered. I was extremely jealous, even though I shouldn't have been... but I couldn't help it.

"Heather, truth or dare?" Matt asked.

"That's easy." she replied. "Definitely dare."

Matt got a wicked look in his eyes and smiled at me as he gave her the dare. He was looking directly at me as he said it. "Heather... I dare you to give Greg a lap dance."

I couldn't believe Matt would do something like that. He was purposely being cruel towards me. I felt the tears coming again, but I didn't want them to see how much this was all affecting me.

Greg at least took a moment to turn to me and ask, "Are you OK with this?"

I simply shrugged my shoulders, biting my lip, scared if I tried to speak, the sobs would escape. He could see the answer in my eyes though, I know he could. So of course, that's why he turned away from me.

As soon as Heather straddled him, a single, silent tear fell from my eye. I prayed that no one saw, and I just stood up and walked outside. I heard Amay and Melanie giggling, behind me and more tears started to escape my eyes. I had trouble getting the door open, and as I was fiddling with the doorknob, I heard Heather say, "Shh... don't worry about her." as I got the door open and I ran outside, allowing the cool summer night breeze to come into contact with my tears which were now pouring out.

I ran to the tour bus, my tears causing all the images around me to blur. When I reached the bus, I tried to open it, but I realized it was locked and I didn't have the key. There was no way I was going to go back in there, so I slid down and sat leaning against it.

I was such a mess. I didn't know what was happening to me. I was falling apart so easily, because I had fallen for someone so quickly. I was so angry. Not at Greg, at myself. I was angry that I wasn't angry at him. I was angry that I still cared for him deeply. I was confused too. I just didn't get why Matt had acted in such a way. He told me that very same afternoon that he wanted to walk away from our whole situation knowing what he did was right. But how could he say that and then turn around and so something so cruel to me? 

My tears finally stopped and I had closed my eyes and was lost in thought when I felt someone reach out and stroke my face. I slowly opened my eyes, scared of who I would find.

"I'm so sorry..." Greg whispered.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't even know what to think.

"I never meant to hurt you." he continued. "I'm just..." he sighed. "I just haven't had a 'steady' girlfriend in a long time. I'm so used to the way things were..." he paused. "and I just forgot."

I still didn't say a word. He just forgot? That was great. Just great. He couldn't even remember me as soon as he saw a hot girl? SUPER.

"But now I realized my mistake, and I'm never going to forget again." He took my hand. "I barely know you, but I already know that you're all I need." he said sincerely.

I was still at my loss for words, so I just reached out and wrapped my arms tightly around him, hugging him close. I knew my heart had already forgiven him this time, but I promised myself if something like this happened again, I wouldn't let it go so easily.


	10. Chapter 10

**THE PAST AND NEW BEGINNINGS**

Greg and I had decided not to go back inside and rejoin the game of truth or dare, and opted instead to board the bus and hang out on our own until it was time to leave for the next stop. We had both hopped up onto one of the bunks and sat opposite each other indian style. As I tried to make myself comfortable I felt something hard beneath me. I lifted myself up and scooped the notebook from beneath me.

The brown cover appeared to be leather, and I delicately ran my fingers over the letters on the cover, which spelled out Greg's name. "What's this?" I asked him, still admiring the notebook which appeared to be quite expensive.

I saw Greg's face turn a crimson shade. "I just write lyrics and poems in there." he mumbled, and I could tell he was embarrassed. I didn't understand why he would be though.

"May I?" I asked playing my fingers over the tie that kept the notebook closed.

He nodded his head hesitantly. I carefully untied the closing and slowly opened the notebook.

"Just don't laugh, and don't think of me differently." he said quietly.

I looked up then, and took his hand. "I would never laugh." I assured him solemnly, and then turned the notebook to the first page. The top of the page was dated February 12, 2001, about five months ago.  
  
 _you bat your lashes  
as the thunder crashes  
you ignore the storm unfolding.  
you let out a laugh,  
as the lightening flashes,  
ignore that you're not the only one i hold._

_every time i appear  
you hide your tears,  
but I see them through the rain.  
i whisper in your ear,  
insincerely, what you want to hear,  
i'd give you love, but i only know pain._

_even though you ignore it,  
i know you implore it,  
and i don't know how to reform.  
you deserve more,  
i'm gone, out the door,  
i'm disappearing with the storm._  
  
I read the poem quietly and turned to the next page.  
  
 _It's gone,  
She's gone,  
I wonder,  
Does she wonder,  
Maybe,  
Maybe,  
She was the one.  
  
She's lost,  
I lost her  
Now I need,  
What she needed,  
Maybe,  
Someday,  
I'll find it.  
  
She's his now,  
Not mine,  
I miss her,  
Does she miss me?  
Maybe,  
Today,  
I've changed._  
  
As I read the poems I wondered who the girl he was writing about was. In a way, I was jealous of her. He wrote with such emotion about her. At the same time, I felt horribly for her, and I wondered more about Greg. About who he truly was inside, where he'd been and what he'd done. He was watching me as I read his poems and I looked up into his hazel eyes. "Who was she?" I asked in a half whisper.  
  
Greg took a deep breath and looked at me for a few moments before answering. "Her name was Julie."

I nodded, and then asked, "You cheated on her?"

"I think you're beginning to see I'm not so great with relationships." Greg said, leaning his head back against the window. "She was my first really serious girlfriend, and before that, one of my closest friends." He sighed. "And I fucked it up. Just like every other relationship after that one." he explained.

I didn't know what to say. "I'm...sorry." I mumbled.

"I'm the one who's sorry." Greg responded. "It killed me to know she knew what was going on, yet she looked past it, pretended it didn't matter. It was like part of me wanted her to hate me for what I did. But she didn't, and she still doesn't. We'll never be the friends we were, but when I see her, it's not like she turns her back on me either." He shook his head. "Everyone always forgives me. I mean, think back ten minutes. You just forgave me. I fuck everything up and everyone ignores it!"

I could see he was getting really upset. I closed the notebook and placed it down. I moved closer to Greg and entwined my fingers in his again. "You made a mistake. I can forgive a mistake." I provided a tiny smile. "And if anyone fucks this relationship up, it's not going to be you." I sighed. "I hooked up with Matt." I told him, as I had a sudden urge to just come clean.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I know." he squeezed my hand. "I can forgive a mistake too." I squeezed his hand back.

I lay myself down in the bunk and pulled him down beside me. We faced one another and I wrapped my arms around him. "Let's start all over again." Greg suggested, wrapping his around me.

I kissed his nose lightly. "We'll make this work." I promised.  
  
****************************************  
We fell asleep in each others arms and I woke up a few hours later. I looked at the clock and saw that it was about one thirty in the morning. I wasn't tired enough to go right back to sleep and I heard voices coming from the back of the bus, so I decided to investigate what the other guys were up to. As I approached I was surprised to hear my name being spoken and decided to do a little spying.

I snuck right behind the curtain separating the parts of the bus, and sat down in the corner of my room. I could see the whole room through a slit in the curtain, and saw Frankie, Matt and Chris talking.

"Yeah, Frank, I have to agree with you. She is beautiful." Chris said.

"It's even more than that." Frankie sighed. "I wish she was mine."

"Jesse was kind of right." Matt said quietly.

"What do you mean?" Frankie asked.

"She's trouble..." Matt went on.

"No she's not!" Frankie got defensive.

"She doesn't do it on purpose. That's the thing..." Matt continued. "That's what makes it worse. She doesn't realize how pretty she is, and how intriguing. I'm sure she doesn't realize the way you look at her." Matt explained. 

I couldn't believe what my ears were witness to. I looked at myself in the reflection of the window, and shook my head. I wasn't beautiful. They must have been talking about someone else...but I knew they weren't. Matt was right about something though. I hadn't realized that Frankie cared for me as more than a friend. It made me smile, but at the same time, it made me want to cry because I felt sorry that he couldn't be with me.

"I can't believe she forgave Greg." My attention was brought back to the scene in front of me as I heard Matt speak again.

"They always do." Frankie shrugged his shoulders. "Why the hell did you dare that girl, Heather, to give Greg a lap dance anyhow?" he asked Matt.

"I thought it would help influence Greg to cheat on her." he said shamefully.

"Oh, that's real nice." Chris rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I know." Matt sighed. "I just felt like, if I couldn't have her, he shouldn't be allowed to."

Frankie looked at Matt, and though he seemed to understand what Matt was saying, spoke up. "We can't have her...and I guess," he paused. "I guess if I can't have her, I just want her to be happy with who and what she does have."

I found myself crying. That was just such a nice thing to say, and I could tell he meant it with all of his heart. I felt some anger towards Matt, and the way he was dealing with our situation, but I decided not to make a big deal about it, because I realized he was having trouble coming to terms with where we stood.

I had heard enough, and now that I was even more confused than I'd been before, I crept back into the bunk with Greg, and wrapped my arms around him once again. He stirred and with a half asleep voice asked, "Where'd you go?"

"Just got some water. Shh." I whispered. "Go back to bed." I said, as I closed my eyes.  
  
****************************************  
I was gently awaken by a soft kiss. I opened my eyes to see a bright eyed Greg above me pulling away from the kiss. I grinned and without any words pulled him back down and deepened the kiss. He pulled away and I frowned. "You have morning breath." he laughed.

"Gee, thanks!" I said giving him a little shove. He lost his balance and slipped off the bunk, and landed on the bus floor. I was laughing pretty hard as he fell and was still laughing once he was up. "Very funny." he said poking me in the side. "Come on, we're checking into the hotel now, and you can brush your teeth in there." he teased me.

I elbowed him lightly in the stomach and kissed him again. "Good breath or bad, you know you liked that kiss." I winked, and went to the front of my bus to get my bag.

Everyone else seemed to be awake, and as I walked over to my bag I passed Frankie. "Finally decided to join us Koree?" He asked shooting one of his million dollar smiles in my direction.

"Morning, Frankie." I responded smiling. As I walked past him I looked back at him for a brief second remembering the conversation I'd overheard the night before. His eyes met mine and I quickly turned back around and continued towards my bag.

"What time is anyhow?" I asked out loud to no one in particular.

"It's about eleven thirty, sweety." Maryann told me. "We're going to stay here for a few hours and then there's another show tonight." she also informed me.

While everyone was checking in I quickly went to the bathroom in the hotel lobby and whipped my tooth brugh out of my bag. After I brushed my teeth and popped a mint into my mouth, so I'd taste extra fresh for Greg, I headed back towards everyone else.

All the guys had waited to go up to their rooms until I returned. As we boarded the elevator Greg handed me a key. "I got your key for you." He grinned wickedly

"What room am I in?" I asked.

"414." He said still grinning.

"What's with the devilish grin?" I asked.

"What devilish grin?" he teased, as the elevator door opened, the twinkle still in his eye.

I gave him a playful shove out the elevator and just rolled my eyes.

****************************************

After I dropped my stuff off in my room I stepped out and walked two doors over and across the hall to 419 where Greg and Frankie were. I knocked on the door and a few moments later Frankie checked the peep hole and let me in. I stepped inside their room and plopped down on the nearest bed. Frankie sat down beside me and had a huge "Frankie smile" plastered across his face. "Where's Greg?" I asked realizing he wasn't in the room.

"Oh." Frankie said, his smile lessening in intensity. "He went to his mom's room for a minute. She had some of his luggage."

"Oh..." I nodded. "OK." There was an awkward silence as we sat beside each other. I was looking down at my hands which were in my lap.

"So...uh..." Frankie slowly broke the silence. "You guys work things out last night?"

A small smile formed on my lips as I nodded. "Yeah, we're OK." I said. "We're going to be OK." I repeated, reassuring myself more than anyone else.

"He'll be good to you." Frankie said taking my hand. "I really think he will."

He always knew what to say. "You know..." I said giving his hand a little squeeze, "Thank you." I offered him a big smile. "I probably said it yesterday, but you're a really good friend." I said as I pulled him in for a hug.

As he hugged me back, I could feel he didn't want to let go. Part of me didn't want to let go either, but I knew I had to. I pulled away, and not a second too soon, because just then the knob turned and Greg entered the room. I didn't want him to get the wrong idea about anything after the words we'd shared the previous night.

"Hey beautiful!" Greg said tossing the things he'd picked up from his mom on top of his duffel as he walked over to me. He put his hands around my waist and looked into my eyes for a moment before kissing me lightly on the lips. As he pulled away he looked at me again, with that same look and I felt my heart beating faster. I didn't ever want to look away, and I just stared at him with admiration and what was becoming love. I kissed him again, and neither of us noticed Frankie slip out of the room.


	11. Chapter 11

**WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU UP TO?**

"So what do you want to do for the next four hours?" I asked Greg as he unpacked the last of his clothes, folding them carefully and putting them in the hotel dresser.

"I have something in mind." he said sending me a sexy smile.

I rolled my eyes. "We're not staying in here all day to fulfill whatever your horny fantasy is today." I picked up a guide of things to do in the area and opened the pamphlet up, looking for something to fill the afternoon. "Why didn't you tell me there was a mall attached to our hotel!?" I jumped up suddenly excited.

Greg let out a little laugh, "Because I didn't want to be dragged there."

"Too bad! You're being dragged!" I smiled grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the door.

"Fine." Greg agreed. "There's a few things I need to pick up anyway." He said, with that same devilish smile from before reappearing.

"What the hell are you up to?" I asked, stopping short and shaking my head.

"You'll see Koree. You'll see." He promised, as he reversed roles, putting his hand on my butt and giving me a little push out of the room.

****************************************

"You look so dumb." I laughed at Greg, who was wearing his sunglasses in the poorly lit mall. "You look like Chris and you can't even see what you're doing."

"Shhh." Greg hissed. "You're blowing my cover!"

"Baby, you wear sunglasses during your concert. Fans know what you look like even with shades!" I exclaimed, slowly pulling the shades from his eyes. "And besides," I said softly, "I can't look into your beautiful eyes with those things covering them." I smiled sweetly, gazing into his hazel eyes, which at the moment were leaning towards being green and gave him a light kiss on his lips.

As I pulled away I noticed two girls staring in our direction. They looked nervous and slowly made their way over, and I realized they were probably fans who had spotted us. 

"Hey, uh..." one of the girls sputtered out.

"Aren't you Greg from Dream Street!?" the other one interjected excitedly.

Greg started opening his mouth, but I burst in first. "Do you know how many times a day people ask us that?" I asked them. "I don't even see the resemblance between my boyfriend Larry, here, and that boy from that boy band!"

The girls both looked Greg over again and the more outgoing of the two spoke again, "You know, you're right." she agreed. "I don't even know why I thought you were him. Sorry for bothering you!" she apologized and the two walked away, still glancing behind themselves as if they weren't completely convinced.

Once they were out of hearing distance Greg looked at me and laughed. "Larry?" he asked. "Of all names, I look like a Larry?"  
  
"Yeah, pretty much!" I giggled.

"You're a jerk." he said squeezing my sides, and I began to giggle uncontrollably.

"Yeah, but I'm your jerk!" I finally managed to get out turning around and kissing him again.

****************************************  
"I'm hungry." I said turning to Greg as we walked out of Abercrombie & Fitch.

"Tell you what," he said looking at his watch. "Head over to the food court and get whatever you want, and I'll meet you there in 10 minutes... I need to pick up some things." he said with that smile returning at the end of his sentence.

"Whatever you are up to... I don't like it!" I laughed. "But, I'll go along with this for now." I said allowing him to do whatever it was he was getting so excited about.

"Oh, you'll like it alright." he said winking before giving me a peck on the cheek and walking away in the opposite direction. He had my mind reeling and I was getting a little bit more than curious about what was going on. It was probably something stupid, I figured to myself, but I knew only time would tell.

****************************************  
"Oh, here Greg!" I smiled coyly. "Let me hold that bag for you while you unlock the room." I was eyeing the brown paper bag that he'd been carrying since lunch, wishing I had x-ray vision and could find out what the mysterious contents were.

"Right, Kor. Like I'm gonna fall for that." he laughed as he juggled the bag in his other hand while he unlocked the room.

"You're no fun!" I pouted as Greg closed the hotel room behind us.

"I think I am." he said wrapping his arms around me from behind, and leaving a trail of kisses down my neck.

"Mmm." I smiled. "Maybe you are." I turned around and kissed him full on the lips. 

It was then that we heard someone clearing their throat. We broke our kiss and it was then that we noticed Frankie on the opposite side of the room, on top of his bed, reading a book. "Get a room." he said half joking, half seriously.

"This is a room!" Greg groaned falling back onto his bed.

"It's OK, you have to start getting ready anyhow." I said shrugging my shoulders as I sat down on the bed beside Greg's feet. "We're leaving here to be over at the venue in 15 minutes."

"We can do a lot in 15 minutes." Greg suggested, sitting up beside me. "Let's go to your room, Kor." he suggested.

"Let's not." I laughed, flipping on the TV.

"Come on..." he pleaded with me. "You know you want to."

"No." I giggled. "I know you want to!"

Greg started kissing up my neck and to my ear and whispered seductively. "Please, baby." as he nibbled on my ear.

I bit my bottom lip and tried to pretend he wasn't turning me on. As much as I wanted to fool around a little, now knowing how Frankie felt about me, I didn't have the heart to do it in front of him. "Saved by the Bell!" I exclaimed excitedly. "Sorry Greg, Saved by the Bell reruns beat you any day." I joked, and cuddled against him as we watched.

****************************************

"I still can't believe how amazing you are on stage." I complimented Greg, as he wiped the sweat from his face onto a towel in the dressing room. Their show had ended only moments before and I had been just as impressed as the last time. He was truly amazing, and watching him perform made me want to be with him more than anything.

He was out of breath from the performance, but he still responded. "Well I still can't believe how amazing you are in general."

I still wasn't used to anyone saying things like that to me before. But it made me feel so great inside, because I truly believed he meant what he was saying. It was the greatest feeling in the world.

I had been caught up in my thoughts and didn't notice Greg seemed all set to go. "Come on Kor." he said grabbing my hand anxiously.

"Where am I going?" I asked looking at my watch. "I thought we were supposed to wait for Claud to knock and tell us to head to the meet and greet." I said confused.

"That would be if we were going to the meet and greet..." he began. "But you see, I'm suddenly feeling really sick." he said with that wicked smile returning once again as he held his stomach. "Guess we have to go back to the hotel before everyone else." He suggested.

It was obvious he was feeling fine, but I decided to play along. I was dying to know what was going on with him today, and I figured this might bring me closer to figuring it all out.

Claudia knocked on the door and I opened it up. "Claud," I said in a concerned tone of voice. "Greg looks really pale and he doesn't feel so well. I think maybe he should take a cab back to the hotel and get right to bed."

Claudia stepped into the room and felt his head. "He feels alright to me." she said skeptically, but then took another look at him. "You're right though, he doesn't look so hot...well, let me see if it's alright with his mom and the producers."

She disappeared but returned shortly. "Greg, they said it's alright for you to leave, because we want to make sure you'll be OK for tomorrow's concert." she told him. "Koree, would you mind accompanying him and making sure he gets there alright?" she added.

"Sure, that's fine." I smiled, picking up my purse, "Let's get you in bed, Greggy." I said sweetly as Claudia handed me some money for the cab and left the dressing room.

"Greggy?" he looked at me funny.

"I think it's cute." I said grinning.

"I think you're cute." he grinned back.

"I think you're delirious." I laughed. "Let's get out of this joint!" I giggled, as we left the dressing room.

****************************************  
"Thanks." I said handing the cabby the fare as Greg and I got out of the taxi.

"Time for bed!" I smiled sweetly at Greg, who looked a little too excited to be back at the hotel with me.

"I have other plans." he said slyly, putting his arm around my waist.

I removed his arm from it's position and shook my head. "Nuh-uh. You're sick." I teased.

"No I'm not." he pouted, as he placed his hand on my ass.

"Sick minded at least." I laughed. "Come on, you're going to bed." I said as we reached his room. "I'll come back in five minutes to tuck you in." I added before giving him a tiny push into his room.

I walked down the hall to my room and slipped my key card in and entered it, tightly closing the door behind me. I pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of boxers from my suitcase to change into for bed. I figured if I was forcing Greg to go to bed, I'd settle down for the night as well. 

I had pulled off my top and was only in my bra and jeans when I heard the door opening. I froze in place frightened, knowing I had completely closed the door behind me, and it had locked. Footsteps neared me and I held my breath. I slowly turned around to come face to face with Greg who was smiling innocently at me, holding a keycard in one hand and waving it in the air.

"You damn near gave me a heart attack!" I exclaimed, playfully slapping his arm. "Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for bed?" I asked raising my eyebrows. "And how did you get a key to my room, mister?" I interrogated him, quite amused at his antics.

He placed the key card on the table in the corner of the room and smiled up at me. "Got myself a copy when I got yours for you." he smiled innocently. He pulled a black handkerchief from his back pocket and before I could protest he swiftly tied it around my eyes. "As for getting ready...I was getting ready for something else." he said mysteriously and took my hand leading me somewhere.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked.

"You'll see..." he said, before giving my neck a series of kisses.

Suddenly I realized I was half naked on top. "Greg..." I giggled. "You do realize I'm not exactly fully dressed."

I heard him laugh. "I noticed... trust me I have." he replied. "And I'm enjoying it." he said as I heard him open the hotel room door.

"Greg!" I exclaimed, "You better not be taking me anywhere public partially clothed or I will kill you!"

He continued to laugh and pull me along and I heard the door close behind us. "Oh my God. Oh my God." I repeated. "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you!" I said and I started to playful pull away from him, but I was laughing still the same.

"Stop struggling, we're almost there." He said finally getting me to stop. I heard another door open and then close, and then a moment later we stopped moving completely. 

"Are you going to tell me where you've taken me?" I asked curiously. I waited for an answer but none came. I tried my best to squint through the blindfold but it was doing it's job. I couldn't see a damn thing!

A moment later I felt the warmth of Greg's body behind mine, and the tight material covering my eyes suddenly became loose as he removed the blindfold. The scene in front of me was something out of a movie. I gasped. The room was solely lit with the glow from the flames of aromatic candles that surrounded the bed area. Greg had managed to get a room with a king sized bed and it, as well as the floor around it, was covered with rose petals. He had replaced the hotel bedding with deep green silk sheets. On the pillow lay a bouquet of red roses as well as an envelope with my name written neatly across it in Greg's handwriting.

I didn't know what to say, and I just stood there in awe. "Greg," I finally whispered. "This is so beautiful. No one has ever done anything even remotely like this for me before." I twirled around to face him and kissed him briefly. "Thank you." I said giving him another kiss.

Greg smiled at me. I could see it in his smile, and in his eyes, he was so happy to make me feel the way he was. "Read the card." he said gently guiding me to the bed.

I made my way over to the bed and sat down on the edge, facing Greg. I picked up the roses and inhaled, smelling the scent that was floating through the room, even stronger. I took my time carefully opening the envelope and then slowly pulled from it a card. The front of the card showed a bouquet of roses matching my own. I opened it up, and read the words written by Greg out loud.

_I've never met a person like you before in my life, and whether you know it or not you make me want to be a better person. You look at me for who I am inside, and you know about my mistakes, yet you're somehow still beside me. I'm falling in love with you._

_Forever,  
Greg_

Tears fell from my eyes as I read Greg's words, and I became choked up towards the end. "Don't cry!" He said wrapping his arms tightly around me.

I looked up to find his magnificent green eyes staring back into mine, with nothing but love. "You're amazing." was all I could say.

"One hundred percent of what I wrote is the truth." he told me wrapping his arms even more tightly around me. "You do something to me that no one else ever has." he paused for a moment in thought and then continued. "Any other girl, I would have probably let leave me after what I did with that fan yesterday, but no... not you. When I realized you were that close to slipping away, I felt like dying." He took one of my hands in his and brought the other one up to my face which he stroked. " You're incredible, and I just wanted you to know. All this," he gestured to the surroundings, "was my big secret. I think it was worth the wait, how about you?" he asked me.

All I could think to myself was, how in the world did I manage to get someone like Greg. My tears had ceased and I was capable of speaking, but I decided I would show him my answer instead. I flung my arms around his neck and kissed him with more passion than I knew I had. He reciprocated and as his tongue danced with mine we rearranged so that we laying on the bed, Greg on top of me.

Seeing that my shirt had been previously removed I tugged at the bottom of Greg's and pulled it over his head, breaking away from our kiss for just a moment. As I did this Greg was getting eager as well and fiddled with my bra clasp for a second before he got it and removed the fabric from my body. I ran my hands over his chest, and was becoming more turned on by the minute. Greg then wasted no time and brought his lips to my newly exposed skin.

He tasted the salt of my skin, licking and sucking where ever he could. Goosebumps formed all over my body and chills ran down my spine. He teased me, dancing his tongue around my nipple and avoiding the sensitive piece of flesh. I moaned. "Greg...please." I said between breaths.

He continued to tantalize me for a little longer before suddenly flicking my nipple with his tongue. My eyes were closed and I felt a satisfied smile spread across my lips as he slipped my nipple into his mouth. My heat was beating fast and I wanted to take this a little further.

I brought my hands down to the zipper of his jeans and slowly unzipped them. He looked up at me for a moment with a sparkle in his eyes. I smiled sweetly and pulled his pants down, and with his help, got them off completely. I then guided my hand back down and placed it directly over his raging erection. "Koree..." he began, but I knew exactly what he wanted.

I removed my hand and slowly began to leave a trail of kisses down his body, beginning at his neck. It was my turn for teasing and I made my journey down his body excruciatingly slow. His collar bone, chest, and bellybutton all got their turns. When I reached the top of his boxers, I nibbled at them for a moment and brought my hands back up to pull them down.

I gasped when I saw his throbbing boner up close. I hesitantly reached out and touched it and when I felt his body jolt I wrapped my hand around it and ran it down the full length. I looked up at Greg once more and his eyes were begging me to continue. I complied and slid my body down so that my face was only inches away from his manhood.

Without another second of thought I replaced my hand with my tongue. I tasted the foreign body part and decided I could definitely get used to the taste and I was eager for more. I brought my lips to the head of his cock and let it slide between my lips. Greg let a long moan escape as I guided half of his length into my mouth and swirled my tongue around it. He put his hands behind my head and thrust himself deeper into my mouth. His breaths were much closer together before and his moans and gasps encouraged me to suck him harder and take him deeper.

"Holy shit!" Greg said pushing me towards him harder than before. "I'm gonna..." he began but didn't finish his sentence as his body froze in ecstasy. I should have expected what happened next but I was still surprised as I tasted his salty fluid shoot into my mouth. I tried to swallow it all but some spilled from the corner of my mouth. When he was done he slipped out of my mouth. I pulled myself up to him and kissed him deeply, with his taste still on my mouth.

As we kissed I could feel his erection had returned beneath me and smiled to myself. He pulled away from the kiss and whispered, "Koree... I want to feel myself in you."


	12. Chapter 12

**DIFFERENT PLACES**

I pulled away for a moment and looked deeply into his pleading eyes. They were staring at me with anticipation, and longing. They were glazed over with lust. I kept looking hoping to see more than just that, but it simply wasn't there. "I can't," I finally whispered.

I watched his expression change and could tell he was upset. I didn't move, and my eyes were fixed on his naked body which was extended across the bed. Suddenly what I had just done became clear in my mind and I felt a nauseas feeling in the pit of my stomach. I got off the bed quickly and scrambled to find my articles of clothing that had been carelessly tossed out of the way. "I..." I began as I scooped my clothes from the floor and carelessly threw them on, "I'm sorry." I shook my head as I locked the door and quickly left.

I felt tears cascading down my cheek and I ran down the hallway towards my room. I wasn't even looking where I was going and crashed into someone, and my confused body went limp and I tumbled to the carpeted floor. A hand outstretched to help me up and I brought my eyes up to see it was attached to Frankie. He tilted his head and looked at me with concern. He pulled me up and opened his mouth to begin to say something, but I couldn't bear to look him in the eye, and my mind was too foggy to have a conversation at that point, so I just walked unsteadily the rest of the way to my room without brushing myself off or even thanking him for helping me up.   
  
****************************************

The moment I entered the room, I went into the bathroom to throw some water on my face. Before doing so I looking at my reflection in the mirror and I noticed I looked absolutely awful. No wonder Frankie had given me such a look of concern. Not only was I stumbling through a hotel hallway, I was sweating causing my hair to stick to my face, my clothes were quite disheveled and my eyes were still wet and bloodshot.

I couldn't stand looking at the distorted image of myself any longer and turned the faucet on, allowing ice cold water to run. I quickly splashed some onto my face to cool my burning, tear stained cheeks. I turned the water off and sat down on the toilet seat for a moment, catching my breath and replaying the nights events in my mind over again.

I sighed to myself, and stood up again. I avoided looking in the mirror as I stripped back down. I placed my clothes on the counter top and turned the shower on. I was never a big fan of hotel showers, because the shower is supposed to be a personal place, but when you don't know who used it before you, it's not so personal anymore, but I didn't even bother searching for my flip flops to wear inside it. All I wanted was to cleanse myself.

I stepped under the warm flow of water, and closed my eyes. I hoped the water would wash away the thoughts burning through my mind but I wasn't that lucky. I picked up my bar of soap and ran it up and down my body. I cleaned every inch of my skin thoroughly, and though I smelled squeaky clean, I felt far from it. I felt dirty, and all the soap and water in the world wouldn't make me feel any different.

I stayed under the stream of water a little longer, and finally turned it off. I grabbed a towel from the rack and patted myself dry. I then towel dried my hair, and walked across the tiny bathroom and took the bathrobe off the hook on the back of the door and wrapped the terrycloth around my body, tying it closed and departed the bathroom.  
  
****************************************

Upon reentering the room, I saw my t-shirt and boxers laid out from where I had placed them previous to the events that had occurred. I looked over at the clock beside the bed, and noted that it was only a quarter after ten. I sighed and pulled the shade from my window to the side to look at the night sky. The sky was dark and the stars were all hidden by clouds. I guess I couldn't even wish my troubles away. I was about to untie my robe to put on my sleeping wear, when I was interrupted by a soft knock at the door.

I hesitated, unsure of who it was, and unsure of if I wanted to look anyone in the eye. I didn't move from my position, and moments later I heard another series of knocks. I slowly stood up and with feather light footsteps walked to the door and looked through the peep hole. Frankie was pacing in front of my door.

I opened the door offering him entrance and stepped back inside the room and over to the bed without saying a word. I sat down on the edge of the bed, and he took a place beside me. He looked at me with caring, innocent eyes. Eyes that reminded me of the girl I had always been. He opened his mouth again to speak, but before he could, my tear gates opened once again and I put my head on his shoulder, as the salty fluid formed a damp spot on Frankie's light blue t-shirt.

My sudden actions took him by surprised, but he placed his hand on my back and started rubbing it, awkwardly at first. As he became more comfortable, my tears slowed to an occasional sob. He continued soothing me with his hand, still having not said a single word until all the crying came to a cease. My breathing slowed, and I brought my body into a more comfortable position laying my head in his lap and closed my eyes. He continued to bring his palm up and down my back and when he noticed I had calmed some, he let it rest in the small of my back.

  
****************************************

My eyes opened to bright morning light that beamed through the window, where I had left the shade opened. I turned to look at the clock, and the red block numbers read 5:53 AM. My body felt weak, and I began to remember my emotionally draining night. I found myself under the covers of my bed, though still in my robe, and wondered how I had gotten there, not remembering how I had fallen asleep. I got up to go to the bathroom when I noticed Frankie curled up on the floor by the foot of the bed.

Memories of the previous evening began to rush back into my mind, and I realized I owed Frankie at least some sort of explanation. I quickly did what I had to do in the bathroom and came back out. It was too late to bother going back to sleep, knowing I had to get up to get ready to go back on the road in about an hour anyhow. I walked over to where Frankie lay and sat on the carpeted floor beside him.

I examined his sleeping body for a few minutes. He was on his side, and he looked at peace. Up and down, in and out, up and down, in and out, I watched the rise and fall of his chest with each breath he took. His lips had formed a small smile, and I wondered what he was dreaming of. I almost didn't want to wake him, but I really felt the need to sit down and talk with him. After promising myself I'd stay composed through our conversation, I put my hands one on each shoulder and softly shook him and said in a loud, but not exactly bright voice, "Rise and shine." He slowly opened his eyes, which right away locked with mine.

"Morning..." he said slowly, looking at me tentatively. I returned to a sitting position and sat indian style and motioned for him to do the same.

Once he settled down and was close to fully awake, I began to speak again, "I'm sorry about the way I acted last night," I began.

"No need to be sorry," he replied, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

I wanted to fill him in, but I couldn't find the words to tell him about the past night. My voice was stuck in my throat and I was afraid if I attempted to retell what had happened, I would get choked up, and the crying cycle would start all over again.

He looked at with wonderment in his eyes, and cocked his head to the side, "Do you want to talk about it?" he finally asked.

I nodded and with a deep breath began the story, "It all started with Greg's wicked grin on the elevator yesterday morning..."

****************************************

When I had completed the story I was on the brink of tears once again, but I sucked it up and stayed strong. The entire time Frankie just listened, nodding, and occasionally adding an "I understand," or "I get what you're saying." It felt really good to get it all out, though I was embarrassed by my actions. Frankie didn't seem disgusted with me, and didn't appear to pass any judgments on me. He didn't look at me any differently than he had before we had sat down to talk.

"So what are you going to do now?" he inquired.

I bit my bottom lip and shook my head. "I really don't know," I sighed. "I really don't know." I paused to think. I knew I was going to have to talk to him about it, although it was the last thing I could have possibly wanted to do. "What happened when you went back into your room last night?" I suddenly asked Frankie, remembering that he had been sharing a hotel room with Greg.

"Well," he began. "There was still evidence that something had gone on between the two of you, but when I asked Greg about it, teasingly, he got really defensive and wouldn't talk about it," he explained, but then hesitated to think about the situation some more. "I'm trying to decide if his facial expressions expressed anger or sadness," he looked deep in thought and finally decided, "I think it was a mixture of the two."

I just sat there and nodded, "Oh."

"Do you want me to go to the room and check how things are right now with him?" Frankie offered.

"No," I declined. "This is something I should do on my own." I resolved. "Whether he's going to be happy, pissed off or just upset to see me, I need to go talk to him face to face."

"You're right." Frankie agreed, and then after a few moments added, "Greg really is a good guy. He just gets overwhelmed sometimes and doesn't think things out for the long run."

I smiled to myself. _Frankie_ really is a good guy, I thought. He was here to hold me and lend me his ear, and at the same time, even though I knew he had feelings for me, stood up for his friend's character. He could have just as easily said nothing at all, or even said something on the contrary, but he wasn't selfish like that. It made me appreciate everything he'd done and said even more.

"You're a true friend." I thanked him. "I can't even find the words to thank you, because I'll feel like the meaning I want to convey would be lost in the words," I explained, and gave him another hug. He hugged me back, and I almost didn't want to let go, because I knew that once I did I would have to face Greg once again. 

Frankie must have sensed my reluctance, and slowly pulled away, "Go on," he urged me. "You can do this."

I smiled weakly, and nodded. I knew he was right, and if anything went wrong, I could always come back to him for comfort.

****************************************  
  
Within the next twenty minutes, Frankie had left to get some breakfast downstairs, and I had showered again, dressed, left my room, and walked down the hallway until I was outside Greg's room, where I was still standing. I couldn't bring myself to knock on the door, though. I hadn't even planned what I was going to say, and I was about to turn around, when the door opened.

Neither one of us was expecting to come to face to face with the other one at that moment and were taken aback. He was wearing a white wife beater tank top and a pair of dark khaki colored cargo shorts. His eyes looked tired, and it appeared as though he'd gotten little sleep the night before. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't scowling at me either. I looked into his hazel eyes, but couldn't read the emotion locked inside them.

We were standing by his doorway, neither one saying a word, like two idiots for a minute, before I finally, meekly asked, "Can we talk?"

Greg nodded his head and turned back around into his room, gesturing for me to follow. He sat in a chair, and I awkwardly stood in the middle of the room. He didn't make any effort to start the conversation, so I sighed and began speaking, not sure what words would flow from between my lips. 

"I don't know where to start," I began, "but I'm going to just go with what my heart tells me to say." I paused. "Last night, what you did for me, the way you set the room up, and the card, well, it was beyond incredibly sweet. I felt like I was Cinderella and you were Prince Charming coming to sweep me off my feet," I smiled, but then shook my head. "It's just, everything else...it was just happening too soon, too fast, and I lost all senses for awhile, and at the same time, I can't help but wonder if what happened before we were, well you know," I blushed. "If that was all just a plan so you could get into my pants." I finally sputtered out.

Greg scowled at me. "Can I say something now?" he snapped.

I didn't know what reaction I was expecting, but this certainly wasn't it. I simply nodded my head, allowing him to continue.

"I don't even know why I wasted my time on you if you think that everything to this point has just been some kind of scheme." he spat out, with a disgusting look plastered on his face. "Just because I'm a seventeen year old boy, who happens to have raging hormones, doesn't mean I don't also have a heart," he continued, his voice increasing in volume. "I cared about you, or I wouldn't have gone through all the trouble I have already. I could have easily fucked that girl in Pittsburgh if all I wanted was sex, but that's not what I wanted. I wanted YOU." he finished.

I wasn't prepared for what he had said and I felt like a real bitch for what I had implied. I was at a loss for words, but knew I couldn't stand there for an hour thinking something up. "I just wasn't ready to do something like this," I whispered. "I'm not a slut..." I added.

Greg rolled his eyes. "No one said you were a slut," he pointed out. "But, now that you say it, the way you've been acting points to it. Between the way you've been teasing me and your little fling with Matt, and the looks I've seen you give Chris and Frankie, I don't know what to call you." he shook his head.

I felt tears building up inside me, and swallowed hard, promising I wouldn't let him see me cry. "I thought we said we were going to put the Matt thing behind us." I managed to get out.

"I guess it's not that easy," he answered quickly. "And it's not that easy to forget how you left me hanging last night," he added.

"I told you I wasn't ready," I repeated. "I didn't mean to lead you on, and I'm sorry it ended up the way it did," I apologized, although I didn't feel like I should, after the harsh things he'd said about me. "And for the record, if I was a slut, I would have slept with you last night. I'm sorry if I don't want to lose my virginity to someone I've known for only a matter of days, when I've held on to it this long."

I waited for him to say something, but he didn't. I couldn't stand to be in the same room with him. I liked him so much, but at the same time, I wanted to rip his head off at that moment. "Whatever," I sighed, throwing my hands up in defeat. "I give up. I guess we're in two very different places right now," I concluded and walked towards the door. I opened it to leave, and as I closed it behind me, I heard Greg shout, "Whoever had the brilliant idea to put a girl on this tour, needs to be fired."

****************************************

I walked right out of his room straight to the elevator. I wasn't going to cry. I wasn't upset, really. I was a little pissed off, and a little confused, but I didn't need to cry. I just had to get away from him. I stepped into the empty elevator and pressed the button that would take me to the lobby. I quickly reached my destination, and the doors slid open to the bustling lobby, in which people carrying luggage were either checking in or checking out.

I walked to the restaurant in which they were serving a buffet style breakfast, and headed straight for the scrambled eggs. Once I got myself a heaping plate of eggs, hash browns, toast, and bacon, I didn't bother scanning the room for someone from the tour to sit with, and found myself a quiet, empty table in the corner of the room where I could be alone. A waiter came over to the table and offered me some coffee. I thanked him, and asked him, if he got the chance, to bring me a hotel pad and pen. Moments later he returned with it, and I thanked him again.

With all the drama going on, I had almost forgotten the reason I was on the tour-- to write. Too bad I can't write an article about my life so far on this tour for the magazine, I thought to myself. I started jotting down some ideas for stories as I sipped on my coffee and slowly ate my food. I was so lost in thought, I barely noticed someone sit down across from me. I looked up, and saw one of the last people I expected to...Jesse.

"Hi," I said cautiously.

"Hey," he smiled.

I had barely talked to him the entire tour and wasn't sure what else to say to him, especially since most of our previous conversations had been ones I'd rather forget. I smiled back, and then returned to my pad, and started scribbling on it, since I couldn't concentrate on writing with him sitting there.

"Listen," he spoke again, with a certain softness in his voice. "I just wanted to apologize for the way I treated you. I stopped acting as ignorantly as I had been, but I thought you deserved a verbal apology as well."

I looked back up and smiled again, "Thanks," I accepted his apology. "I really needed that," I informed him.

"Long story," I sighed, taking another sip of my coffee and leaning back into my chair. "Let's just say, I'm beginning to think you may have been right with what you initially thought about me," I trailed off. "Maybe I am trouble."


End file.
